Receipt of preventive dental care among special-needs children enrolled in Medicaid: a crisis in need of attention

Although not widely recognized, tooth decay is the most common childhood chronic disease among children ages five to seventeen. Despite higher rates of dental caries and greater needs, low-income minority children enrolled in Medicaid are more likely to go untreated relative to their higher income counterparts. No research has examined this issue for children with special needs. We analyzed Medicaid enrollment and claims data for special-needs children enrolled in the District of Columbia Medicaid program to evaluate receipt of recommended preventive dental care. Use of preventive dental care is abysmally low and has declined over time. Enrollment in managed care rather than fee for service improves the likelihood that special-needs children receive recommended preventive dental services, whereas residing farther from the Metro is an impediment to receipt of dental care.     

Predicting police behavior: Ecology,class, and autonomy

Social ecological theories of crime have recently been extended to explain spatial variation in police behavior. Although these theories successfully identify community characteristics affecting local policing, they fail to acknowledge the class-based origins of formal social control and the relative autonomy of the police. This paper addresses the neglected class issue by integrating social ecological and critical theories in a model of police behavior. Cross-sectional data was obtained from twenty-five police agencies’ vice divisions and their corresponding jurisdictions to test the integrated hypothesis. Four social ecological variables and a fiscal measure of relative autonomy are examined as police behavior predictors. Findings reveal that both the autonomy measure and three of the social ecological variables explain significant variance in police behavior, thus supporting the inclusion of structural Marxism in a general theory of police behavior.