The politics of economic adjustment policy in Argentina,Brazil, and Mexico: Experiences in the 1980s and challenges for the future

During the debt crisis of the 1980s, new democratic governments in Argentina and Brazil experimented with heterodox approaches to economic stabilization, whereas Mexico's dominant party regime adopted a far more orthodox line of adjustment. None of these approaches had led to a sustained recovery by the end of the decade. Difference in policy choices are attributable to goals and beliefs of top decisionmaking officials and to the way the institutional features of their respective political regimes structured time horizons and vulnerability to domestic distributive pressures. Converging economic outcomes are attributable to underlying structural problems that cut across these distinctions: political constraints on the management of fiscal deficits, and international power asymmetries impeding significant reductions in the external debt burden.     

OUTCOMES OF FAMILY COUNSELING INTERVENTIONS WITH CHILDREN WHO RESIST VISITATION: AN ADDENDUM TO FRIEDLANDER AND WALTERS (2010)

Preliminary findings on the outcomes of family-focused counseling interventions for alienated and estranged children are presented based upon data from a longitudinal study of children in chronic custody disputes who were interviewed as young adults and from the clinical records of long-term therapy with these children who were resisting visitation.     

A special police unit: Intimate partner violence and perceived helpfulness of services received

To evaluate the perceived effectiveness of domestic violence assistance offered by a special unit of an urban police department, 90 women having filed assault, stalking, or harassment charges on an intimate were interviewed. Threats of abuse, physical abuse, and stalking were measured—86% of the women reported experiencing severe abuse and 60% of the women had been stalked. On follow-up interview—41% of the women reported the abuse had stopped, while 7% said the abuse had decreased. Half of the women had used information provided by the unit, with 86% of the women considering police services received as being helpful. Authors' Note: Pam Willson, Ph.D., is a post-doctoral research associate at Texas Woman's University in Houston. Judith McFarlane, Dr. PH, currently holds the Parry Chair in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the University. Ann Malecha, Ph.D., is assistant professor of nursing at the University. Dorothy Lemmey, Ph.D., is associate professor of Nursing at Lakeland College.     

FAMILY COURT IMPROVEMENT AND THE ART OF GRANTSMANSHIP: A JUDGE'S PERSPECTIVE

Many American courts face funding obstacles as they try to create and implement unified family court processes that have not been part of the traditional family court adversarial process. To create new staff positions, build and equip adequate facilities, and create and implement innovative programs, grant funding may be available to supplement what local and state governments provide. While social science research confirms that children are adversely affected by exposure to high‐conflict family litigation and domestic violence, many communities have few affordable and available resources to address these issues. This article presents lessons and principles that one court learned as it applied for a grant to design programs for high‐conflict families and families with domestic violence history.     

Legislating for Your Own Good: Criminalising Moral Choice. The Modern Echoes of the Victorian Vaccination Acts

Victorian vaccination legislation has important echoes for the present age in the dilemma over how to promote compliance with government-endorsed scientific and medical public health strategies for the welfare of the community in a context of growing popular mistrust of such initiatives, in terms of their likelihood to confer benefits as well as their possible negative impacts on individuals. Victorian experience of dealing with the issue of ‘conscientious objection’ to policy initiatives seen as intruding into the area of individual moral choice, especially parental choice for children, is invoked to suggest better ways of comprehending the present resistance to take-up of the MMR vaccine, and its wider implications; as well as commenting on the role of the media.