Privatisation and Pensions: Some Pitfalls for Women?

This article pursues two themes. The first describes EU pension provision and how this has changed since the early 1980s. The arguments and proposals for further reform by influential organisations such as the World Bank are then examined. In the light of this analysis, the paper argues that while EU pension reform to date has been concerned primarily with adjusting detailed rules, some proposals presently being canvassed point to more radical reform amounting to 'privatisation'. Privatisation is here taken to mean the end of state and employer financing of pension provision for individuals and the substitution of national and company schemes by individual pension and personal savings plans. The second theme of the article is an evaluation of the extent to which existing and possible future pension provision in the EU facilitates or hinders access by people (predominantly women) who are outside the labour market, who are engaged in certain forms of paid work and who are engaged in unpaid caring work. The paper reveals that while access to existing pension schemes is restricted in respect of the first two groups of people, compensatory rules serve to ensure the continued access of those engaged in unpaid caring work. Bringing together the two themes of women's access and pension reform, the paper concludes by arguing that women carers would be disadvantaged were privatisation of pensions in the EU to go ahead.     

National survey of professional practice in child sexual abuse

A sample of 276 professionals described how they spend their professional time, their attitudes and knowledge about etiology and treatment of sexual abuse. Professionals were also asked to respond to a case vignette where varied on two dimensions: age of the child victim and relationship of the offender to the victim. Agencies receiving the questionnaire were randomly assigned to one of the six possible scenario conditions resulting from the two dimensions.     

Taiwanese campaigning and elections, 1991 an outsider’s view

Note from the Editor: From time to time, there are opportunities to report informally to readers of SCID on matters of interest that do not fall neatly into our usual categories of development theory, research, and policy. One such occasion presented itself recently when, participating with an international team, I observed the Taiwanese campaign and elections of December 1991. Subsequently, the team presented recommendations in both Taiwan and the United States, and in addition to the following article, a more orthodox academic publication is also being readied. What follows, however, is a personal, even idiosyncratic, commentary on a significant experience in political change and development.     

Social and emotional adjustment of adolescents extremely talented in verbal or mathematical reasoning

Perceptions of self-esteem, locus of control, popularity, depression (or unhappiness), and discipline problems as indices of social and emotional adjustment were investigated in highly verbally or mathematically talented adolescents. Compared to a group of students who are much less gifted, the highly gifted students perceive themselves as less popular, but no differences were found in self-esteem, depression, or the incidence of discipline problems. The gifted students reported greater internal locus of control. Comparisons between the highly mathematically talented students and the highly verbally talented students suggested that the students in the latter group perceive themselves as less popular. Within both the gifted and comparison groups, there were also slight indications that higher verbal ability may be related to some social and emotional problems.     

DOING TIME IN THE NEW GENERATION JAIL: INMATE PERCEPTIONS OF GAINS AND LOSSES

Observations of New Generation, podularldirect supervision jail operations indicate that the innovative architectural design and inmate management style provide a safer, more humane environment for inmates while concurrently reducing opportunities for inmates to illegitimately fulfill their needs. In the first part of this paper, we demonstrate how differences in New Generation and traditional jail architecture and operations influence the legitimate and illegitimate means by which inmates seek to fulfill their needs. Using data collected from New Generation and traditional jails, we then compare inmate perceptions of need fulfillment, evaluations of the environment and levels of stress.