Early Care and Education for Children in the Child Welfare System: Evaluations of Two Training Programs

Despite evidence that early care and education services benefit at-risk children, they remain underutilized by families in the child welfare system. This article describes two training programs developed to educate child welfare and childcare/preschool staff about the importance of early care and education for maltreated children and how to access these services. A combined total of 274 trainees completed knowledge tests about this topic and significant pre- to post-training improvements indicate that both training programs effectively increased participants' knowledge about this important topic. In addition, improvement in self-assessed competency was observed for participants in one program, and positive changes in attitudes and anticipated practice behavior regarding childcare for foster children were observed among participants in the other.     

Pearson and Responsibility: (Mis‐)Understanding the Capabilities Approach

Aboriginal Australian public intellectual Noel Pearson has gained prominence and influence for his brand of policy reform in Indigenous affairs by drawing upon the capabilities approach. This article challenges the coherence of Pearson's position, arguing that his unrelenting focus on personal responsibility leads him to conflate different elements within capabilities thinking. Pearson 1) mistakes social capabilities (to which people are entitled) for human potential to be unfolded, and 2) casts and prescribes personal responsibility as a type of latent capability. The latter a) inverts the capabilities approach wherein phenomena such as personal responsibility arise as an effect of the realization of latent capabilities rather than serving as latent capabilities themselves, and b) is at odds with the liberal basis of the capabilities approach that rejects imposing “good” ways of life on people. This is illustrated through reference to Pearson's advocacy of Direct Instruction teaching and engagement with the “real economy”. The paper recognizes Pearson's contribution to the policy debate and that the problems he highlights are real, but argues that the remedial approaches adopted are problematic, including in terms of Pearson's stated stance against assimilationist policy agendas.     

An empirical test of the social support paradigm on male inmate society

While social support theory has been applied to a variety of criminal justice settings, there has been little empirical research on the effect of social support on inmate behavior. In this article, we test Cullen’s proposition that social support, in whatever form it manifests itself, has an effect on Korean inmates’ experiences. Specifically, we examine whether social support in an all-male prison environment explains inmate misconduct, victimization, fear of victimization, and the intent to commit crime in the future. We build upon previous research by using unique measures of the instrumental and the expressive dimensions of social support to determine their effect on reducing criminogenic engagement in a prison setting. The results indicate that social support is an important factor in reducing prison violence, enhancing pro-social behavior, and potentially reducing recidivism.     

The Institution of a Standardized Investigation Protocol for Sudden Infant Death in the Eastern Metropole,Cape Town,South Africa,,

The rate for the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in Cape Town, South Africa, is estimated to be among the highest in the world (3.41/1000 live births). In several of these areas, including those of extreme poverty, only sporadic, nonstandardized infant autopsy, and death scene investigation (DSI) occurred. In this report, we detail a feasibility project comprising 18 autopsied infants with sudden and unexpected death whose causes of death were adjudicated according to the 1991 NICHD definitions (SIDS, n = 7; known cause of death, n = 7; and unclassified, n = 4). We instituted a standardized autopsy and infant DSI through a collaborative effort of local forensic pathology officers and clinical providers. The high standard of forensic investigation met international standards, identified preventable disease, and allowed for incorporation of research. We conclude that an effective infant autopsy and DSI protocol can be established in areas with both high sudden unexpected infant death, and elsewhere. (SUID)/SIDS risk and infrastructure challenges.     

Reviews

Rita Felski, The Gender of Modernity (Harvard University Press) Cambridge, MA, 1995.

Katie Holmes, Spaces in Her Day: Australian Women's Diaries 1920s‐1930s (Allen & Unwin) St Leonards, NSW, 1995.

Ros Pesman, Duty Free: Australian Women Abroad (Oxford University Press) Melbourne, 1996.

Frances Porter and Charlotte Macdonald (eds), ’My Hand Will Write What My Heart Dictates’ (Auckland University Press with Bridget Williams Books) Auckland, 1996.

Lucy Bland, Banishing the Beast: English Feminism & Sexual Morality 1885–1914 (Penguin) Harmondsworth, 1995.

Margaret Thornton, Dissonance and Distrust: Women in the Legal Profession (Oxford University Press) Melbourne, 1996.

Diane Bell and Renate Klein (eds), Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed (Spinifex Press) North Melbourne, 1996.

Rye Senjen and Jane Guthrey, The Internet for Women (Spinifex Press) North Melbourne, 1996.     

Reviews

Archie Brown and Michael Kaser, (eds.) Soviet Policy for the 1980s, London: Macmillan/ St Antony's, 1982. 282 pp. £20.00 (hardback) £7–95 (paperback).

David Holloway and Jane M. O. Sharp, (eds.) The Warsaw Pact: Alliance in Transition? London: Macmillan, 1984, 290 pp. £25.00.

Daniel N. Nelson, (ed.) Soviet Allies: the Warsaw Pact and the Issue of Reliability. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1984—UK suppliers, Bowker Publishing Company, xiii + 273 pp. £22.50.

Bohdan Harasymiw, Political Elite Recruitment in the Soviet Union. London: Macmillan, 1984, xviii + 277 pp. £25.00.

Rex A. Wade, Red Guards and Workers’ Militias in the Russian Revolution. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1984, ix + 391 pp. $32.50.

Joachim Hoffmann, Die Geschichte der Wlassow‐Armee. Einzelschriften zur militärischen Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Band 27. Verlag Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1984, xviii + 468 pp. DM. 32.00 (paperback).

Michal Mirski, The mixed economy: NEP and its lot. Translated from Polish by Roger A. Clarke. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1984, 295 pp. DKr. 125.

Jean‐Charles Asselain, Planning and Profits in Socialist Economies. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984, xii + 269 pp. £12.50.

Roger Skurski, Soviet Marketing and Economic Development. London: Macmillan, 1983, 190 pp. £20.00.

Borys Lewytzkyj, Politics and Society in Soviet Ukraine 1953–80. Edmonton: Alberta: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1984, 219 pp.

Timothy Garton Ash, The Polish Revolution: Solidarity 1980–82. London: 1983, George Sanford, Polish Communism in Crisis. London‐New York: 1983.

Jack Bielasiak and Maurice D. Simon, (eds.) Polish Politics: Edge of the Abyss. New York: Praeger, 1984, xv + 366 pp.

Kari Möttölä, O. N. Bykov and I. S. Korolev, (eds.) Finnish‐Soviet Economic Relations, London: Macmillan (in association with the Finnish Institute of International Affairs), 1983, xxi + 358 pp. £30.00

John Dunn, The Politics of Socialism, An Essay in Political Theory Cambridge University Press. 1984, xviii + 107pp. £15 (hardback) £4.95 (paperback).     

Book reviews

Jerry F. Hough, The Soviet Union and Social Science Theory. Harvard University Press, 1977. Russian Research Center Studies, 77. xiv + 275 pp.

Fredrick J. Fleron, Jr. (ed.), Technology and Communist Culture: The Socio‐Cultural Impact of Technology under Socialism. Praeger Publishers, New York and London, 1977, 518 pp.

David Lane, The Socialist Industrial State: Towards a Political Sociology of State Socialism. London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1976. 230 pp. £5.95.

Edward L. Warner, III. The Military in Contemporary Soviet Politics: An Institutional Analysis. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1977. 314 pp.

Economic Relations Between Socialist Countries and the Third World, edited by Deepak Nayyar. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1977. xiv + 265 pp. £15.00.

Donald D. Barry, Georg Ginsberg, and Peter Maggs, Soviet Law After Stalin, Part I, The Citizen and the State in Contemporary Soviet Law. Leyden: A. W. Sijtoff, 1977. xv + 303 pp. D.fl.86.00. $36.00.

Fitzpatrick, Sheila (ed.), Cultural Revolution in Russia, 1928–1931. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1978. 309 pp. $17.50.

Tucker, Robert C. (ed.), Stalinism: Essays in Historical Interpretation. New York: Norton and Co., 1977, xx + 332 pp. $19.95.

Maurice Friedberg, A Decade of Euphoria. Western Literature in Post‐Stalin Russia, 1954–64, Indiana University Press, Bloomington & London, 1977. xii + 372 pp. £13.15.

Gregory Walker, Soviet Book Publishing Policy, Cambridge University Press, 1978. xvi + 164 pp. £6.95

Raymond Pearson, The Russian Moderates and the Crisis of Tsarism, 1914–1917. London: Macmillan, 1977. 208 pp. £8.95.

Andrew Borowiec, Yugoslavia After Tito, Praeger Special Studies in International Politics and Government, New York and London: 1977. 122 pp.

B. Knei‐Paz, The social and political thought of Leon Trotsky. Oxford University Press, 1978. 629 pp. £15.00.

Bogdan Szajkowski, ed. Documents in Communist Affairs 1977. Swansea: Christopher Davies (Publishers) Ltd. in association with the University College Cardiff Press, 1978. 363 pp. £6.95 or £4.50 paperback.

Nonconformity and Dissent in the Ukrainian SSR, 1955–1975: An Annotated Bibliography. Compiled by George Liber and Anna Mostovych. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 1978. xxxix + 245 pp.