The Complex Relationship Between Motherhood and Desistance

Using a sample of 118 drug-involved women originally released from prison in the 1990s and re-interviewed between 2010 and 2011, this paper examines the role motherhood played in the desistance process from crime and substance abuse. Interview narratives revealed that motherhood rarely functioned as a turning point per se that activated desistance, but caring for children did serve to solidify prosocial identities once offenders had transformed their addict/criminal identities. Despite their identity transformations, however, the journey of desistance for the majority of mothers was still a long and arduous path. The reality for these mothers most often resembled a hostile terrain marked by the competing demands of battling addiction, finding employment and suitable housing with a criminal record, establishing visitation and custody rights in family court, and regaining the trust of children and family members who had long ago lost faith in their commitment to their families. This research illuminates the complexities inherent in the desistance process for a contemporary sample of drug involved adult women entrenched within the criminal justice system.     

Barriers to services for rural and urban survivors of rape

A significant proportion of survivors of rape do not utilize formal services to cope with the aftermath of rape. Understanding victimization experiences in environments that differ on resources, such as rural versus urban areas, may be an important dimension to consider in understanding barriers. Thirty women (18 rural and 12 urban) were recruited from rape crisis centers to participate in focus groups. Study results suggest that (a) survivors of rape experience many barriers to service utilization, (b) there were some differences in barriers to service utilization that were mentioned only in rural areas and some that were mentioned only in urban areas that may suggest that community context is important to consider in understanding barriers to service use, and (c) barriers to health and mental health services overlap with barriers to criminal justice system services.     

Making Choices: Adoption Seekers’ Preferences and Available Children with Special Needs

Most children available from public adoption agencies are children with special needs, such as disabilities. This pilot study on the child profile preferences of 5830 adults registered with province-wide adoption agency found that those who were most open to considering children with special needs had been formally seeking to adopt for some time and had completed government-required SAFE assessments and training. Most preferred younger children, and half would consider sibling groups. Between 43% to 60% indicated willingness to consider adopting children with degrees of learning disabilities, emotional behavioral disorders, and physical disabilities, although the willing proportion decreased as the level of each disability's specified impact progressed from “mild” to “moderate” to “severe.” Most preferred, among 20 categories of available children's possible exposures and health diagnoses, were past abuse exposures versus diagnosed disabilities or enduring conditions. Possible explanations for these findings and their implications are explored and ideas for further research proposed.     

Neighborhood Opportunity and Location Affordability for Low-Income Renter Families

Abstract

We use the Location Affordability Index (LAI) and the newly developed Child Opportunity Index (COI) to assess, for the first time, the tradeoff between neighborhood opportunity and housing/transportation affordability facing low-income renter families in the 100 largest metropolitan areas. In addition to describing the opportunity/affordability relationship, we explore the level of balance between neighborhoods’ relative cost burden and their corresponding opportunity levels to determine whether children of different racial/ethnic groups are more (or less) likely to experience cost-opportunity imbalance. Our multilevel analyses show that housing affordability is largely accounted for by the neighborhood opportunity structure within each metropolitan area. The metropolitan characteristics examined account for only a small proportion of the between-metro variance in the opportunity/affordability gradient for housing, presumably because the neighborhood opportunity structure already reflects metro area factors such as fragmentation and segregation. On the other hand, transportation affordability shows a weaker association with neighborhood opportunity. The COI/LAI association is much weaker for transportation than for housing, and a large part of the variation in the transportation gradient occurs at the metropolitan area level, not the neighborhood level. Sprawl is particularly associated with transportation affordability, with lower sprawl areas having lower transportation-cost burden. We discuss the implications of the empirical findings for defining affordability in housing assistance programs. We recommend that housing policy for low-income renter families adopt an expanded notion of affordability (housing, transportation, and opportunity) and explicitly consider equity (e.g. cost-opportunity imbalance) in the implementation of this expanded affordability definition.     

Patient-centered psychiatric care for youth in foster care: a systematic and critical review

Youth in the U.S. foster care system are prescribed risky psychotropic medications at high rates. In response, state child welfare agencies have developed policies, yet there is little research to inform patient-centered care (PCC) approaches. To fill this gap, we aimed to identify (1) the perspectives of youth in or formerly in foster care and their caregivers and providers regarding how psychiatric care aligns or does not align with PCC, and (2) effectiveness of interventions aiming to improve PCC within this context. We conducted a systematic review of the literature based on PRISMA-P guidelines, searching four databases and gray literature. Eleven studies met inclusion criteria and quality appraisal benchmarks, none of which were interventions. We applied narrative synthesis techniques to six studies that described youth/former youth perspectives. They described a pervasive lack of knowledge, perceived little voice in decision-making, and described imbalanced power between patients and providers and weak therapeutic relationships, whereas feeling understood by providers and being provided autonomy in decisions were helpful. Systemic barriers also contributed to many concerns. We make a limited number of recommendations to leaders and policy-makers based on our synthesis, however, many critical research steps are needed.     

Networking in the Shadow of the Law: Informal Access to Legal Expertise through Personal Network Ties

Civil legal problems are common in everyday life, but the costs of obtaining legal representation create barriers to legal action and contribute to disparities in access to justice. Some individuals, however, may have informal access to legal assistance through personal network ties with lawyers, enhancing their responses to justiciable problems. In this study, we draw from theories of social capital and network formation to examine the distribution and mobilization of network‐based legal expertise. Using nationally representative survey data, we find that network‐based access to lawyers is widespread, and most people who have ties to lawyers expect to informally mobilize legal assistance when facing a problem. But people who are most likely to afford formal legal representation are also most likely to have informal access to lawyers. Thus, while informal access to lawyers may shape responses to legal problems, it may also exacerbate inequalities in experiences with civil justice events.