Making civic engagement go viral: Applying social epidemiology principles to civic education

This paper explores the connections between education for youth civic engagement and theories and strategies from public health (specifically, epidemiology). We illustrate this with four applications of epidemiologic theory to youth civic engagement: social determinants and fundamental causes, vulnerable populations and cumulative disadvantage, positive spillover, and herd immunity and critical mass. Formalizing concepts of current civics, in schools and the public, as a civic epidemic, we present a case for individual‐ and group‐level interventions based around targeted, school‐based, effective civic education initiatives. Grounded in epidemiological theory, such approaches call attention to the simultaneous need to improve broad civics education and ensure that particular populations receive necessary attentions.     

“So distant and wild a scene”: language,domesticity and difference in Hannah Kilham's writing from West Africa, 1822-1832

Abstract

Hannah Kilham (1774-1832), a Sheffield Quaker, was involved in philanthropic, educational and missionary work with women in Britain, Ireland and West Africa in the early nineteenth century. In this article the author focuses upon Hannah Kilham's. engagement in the religious and domestic education of African girls and women in the 1820s and 1830s. Through representations of African women as in need of her ‘civilising influence’, Kilham was able to construct a powerful role for herself, and for other white middle-class British women, in the colonial/missionary enterprise. The article explores the significance of notions of gender, domesticity and the Protestant family to the construction of ideas about Africa's ‘difference’ and, through this, British national identity.     

US savings and loan fraud: Implications for general and criminal culture theories of crime

Both the general theory of crime andcriminal culture theories offer manyexpectations and assumptions regarding thecauses of crime and the characteristics ofoffenders. The former asserts that crimeis associated with low self-control. Thelatter, that cultural norms developthat are criminogenic. This paperchallenged three assumptions of thosetheories by examining 481 fraudoffenders. Results demonstrated: (1)individuals higher in the occupationalhierarchy are more likely to commit fraud, (2) offenders are more likely to operatealone and (3) when accomplices areinvolved, they are less likely to beinternal to the institution. The firstfinding contradicts the general theory ofcrime, whilst the second and thirdcontradicts criminal culture theories. Ourfindings suggest that a unitary theory maynot be able to account for such offences. The implications of this study may helpinfluence policing and policy regarding theway in which fraud is approached andunderstood.     

Prisons in transition

The role of the prison has changed, in some ways dramatically, over the last two decades. The prison population has grown and its composition has altered. There has been an increase in the depth and weight of imprisonment, and a hardening of its emotional tone. Prisoners' voices have been silenced, outcomes have deteriorated, and yet public presentation of the prison has improved. Power has shifted upwards, as senior managers have an unprecedented grip on establishments and their 'performance'. There are new fantasies about, and constructions of, the prison's role, with little evidence to support such public and political dreams. Such sleights of hand are only possible without knowledge of the prison's interior life. Punitive prisons which treat prisoners, and possibly prison staff, unfairly and with little or no respect add to human suffering and do not address either the problem of crime or the problem of public fear.     

Most in Need But Least Served: Legal and Practical Barriers to Special Immigrant Juvenile Status for Federally Detained Minors

Abused, neglected, and abandoned immigrant youth face numerous obstacles to physical safety, including potential repatriation (deportation) to abusive caretakers from whom they fled. In recognition of the special needs of abused children, Congress enacted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) to provide a previously unavailable child welfare defense to deportation. The remedy is contingent upon a State court declaration that the youth is, in fact, in need of protection. However, unlike their counterparts in foster care or guardianships, youth detained by the federal government face numerous practical and legal roadblocks to accessing the necessary State court declarations. This article identifies several gaps in State laws which impede detained youths' access to State court declarations, and proposes several remedies which would enable the States to carry out Congress' intent that detained youth have access to SIJS, regardless of detention status.     

Risks and Opportunities of Faith and Culture: The Case of Abused Jewish Women

Intimate partner abusers often focus on physical violence, but abuse may also include exploiting a partner’s faith or subculture. Alternatively, faith or subculture may be a source of strength and support for victims. We explored this by analyzing case files from a Jewish domestic violence services agency. Jewish identity conditions women’s experiences with intimate partner abuse through the use of Judaism as a “tool” for abuse, the role of Jewish holidays and observances, and the role of the Jewish community. While partners of abused Jewish women often perverted the laws and traditions of Judaism to control their partners and the reaction of the larger community varied, being part of an integrated cultural and religious community offered support for some women.