Urban Youth Workers' Use of “Personal Knowledge” in Resolving Complex Dilemmas of Practice

Using narrative inquiry to analyze accounts of how two experienced youth workers handled the potential for gun violence in their organizations, this article argues that youth worker expertise in part is based on personal knowledge derived from childhood neighborhood-based peer groups and participation in youth programs. Expert youth workers draw on personal and professional craft knowledge and move between the rules of youth organizations and the rules of the streets to read people and situations and address the potential for serious violence. Implications for youth worker professional development are raised.     

Real Denial Rates: A New Tool to Look at Who Is Receiving Mortgage Credit

ABSTRACT

The observed mortgage denial rate (ODR), calculated from Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data, is often used to measure mortgage credit availability, but it does not account for shifts in applicants’ credit profiles. In this article, we develop an additional tool, which we call the real denial rate (RDR), as a way to account for credit differences and hence more consistently measure denial rates and mortgage credit accessibility. We match HMDA data with CoreLogic proprietary data to obtain both borrower demographic information (e.g., income and race and ethnicity) and mortgage credit characteristics (e.g., loan-to-value ratios, debt-to-income ratios, and credit scores). We account for shifts in applicants’ credit profiles by considering only the denial rate of low-credit-profile applicants. Our RDR results show that conventional mortgages have higher denial rates than government mortgages do, racial and ethnic differences are smaller than the ODR indicates but are not eliminated, and small-dollar mortgages have higher RDRs, particularly in the government loan channel.     

Symposium,Cannabis—Legal,Ethical, and Compliance Issues: Introduction

This introduction reviews six articles presented at the 2020 symposium, “Legal, Ethical, and Compliance Issues in Emerging Markets: Cannabis in the States.” Scholars from across the United States and Canada presented research using the lens of law and strategy, ethics, and compliance to focus on the U.S. cannabis industry. The articles are discussed within the framework of institutional voids common to emerging markets, which may include a lack of a fully developed regulatory system and issues related to financial markets. These institutional problems create complexity for consumers, producers, municipalities, and state governments in this industry, and make success for this market segment more challenging. The introduction contributes to the discussion by reviewing securities litigation involving the cannabis industry generally and specifically in light of some of the issues identified by authors in the special issue.     

Gender-Specific Relationships Between Depressive Symptoms, Marijuana Use, Parental Communication and Risky Sexual Behavior in Adolescence

A large body of research has identified correlates of risky sexual behavior, with depressive symptoms and marijuana use among the most consistent psychosocial predictors of sexual risk. However, substantially less research has examined the relationship between these risk variables and adolescent risky sexual behavior over time as well as the interaction of these individual-level predictors with family-level variables such as parenting factors. Additionally, most studies have been restricted to one index of risky sexual behavior, have not taken into account the complex role of gender, and have not controlled for several of the factors that independently confer risk for risky sexual behavior. Therefore, the current study investigated the association between depressive symptoms and parameters of parenting on marijuana use, number of sexual partners and condom usage measured 9 months later for both boys and girls. Participants were 9th and 10th grade adolescents (N = 1,145; 57.7 % female). We found that depressive symptoms may be a gender-specific risk factor for certain indices of risky sexual behavior. For boys only, marijuana use at Time 2 accounted for the variance in the relationship between depressive symptoms at Time 1 and number of partners at Time 2. Additionally, strictness of family rules at Time 1 was associated with the number of partners with whom girls engaged in sex at Time 2, but only among those with lower levels of depressive symptoms at Time 1. Results from the current investigation speak to the utility of examining the complex, gender-specific pathways to sexual risk in adolescents. Findings suggest that treatment of mental health and substance use problems may have important implications in rates of risky sexual behavior and, conceivably, controlling the high rates of serious individual and public health repercussions.     

Vicious dogs part 2: criminal thinking, callousness, and personality styles of their owners

Every year over 885,000 dog bites require serious medical attention. Based on human injury and insurance claims, six dog breeds were designated as "vicious" (Akitas, Chows, Dobermans, Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, and Wolf-mixes). This study was conducted to expand on previous research examining antisocial tendencies and personality styles of people choosing to own vicious breeds. Seven hundred and fifty-four college students completed a questionnaire assessing type of dog owned, criminal thinking, callousness, personality, alcohol usage, and deviant lifestyle behaviors. Vicious dog owners reported significantly higher criminal thinking, entitlement, sentimentality, and superoptimism tendencies. Vicious dog owners were arrested, engaged in physical fights, and used marijuana significantly more than other dog owners. However, the homogeneous sample utilized could impact the generalizability of these findings. Choosing to own a vicious dog may be a "thin slice" indicator of more antisocial tendencies.     

Observed Characteristics of Suicidal Hangings: An 11-year Retrospective Review

Many studies have been published regarding suicidal hanging deaths, and most forensic pathologists and coroners are very familiar with such causes of death. Forensic pathologists are challenged over their rulings regarding manner of death in part because the general public has a limited scope of knowledge. One such challenge centers on the question of whether a hanging can be a suicide if the individual is not fully suspended. The authors designed a retrospective study to review suspension in hangings and to analyze other criteria used to help in deciding manner of death. We examined 229 suicidal hanging deaths over an 11-year period (1997 through early 2009) using the data from two separate jurisdictions in Ohio. In conclusion, we found that the vast majority (83.4%) of people who hanged themselves were found partially suspended. Among other criteria analyzed, only the presence of petechial hemorrhages and acute neck injury was statistically significant.     

An empirical study of the consolidation of local public health services in Connecticut

This study contributes to the literature by empirically examining the decision of Connecticut communities to consolidate the delivery of public health services. As theory suggests, the prospect of scale economies is found empirically to increase the likelihood that a community consolidates public health services. In addition, differences across communities are found to inhibit the consolidation of public health services. Overall, the results imply that financial incentives may be necessary to encourage more regional districts because localities may underestimate the true minimum efficient scale for public health services and because heterogeneity among jurisdictions impedes regional cooperation.     

Social Citizenship,Housing Wealth and the Cost of Social Care: Is the Care Act 2014 ‘Fair'?

This article assesses the extent to which it is ‘fair’ for the government to require owner‐occupiers to draw on the equity accumulated in their home to fund their social care costs. The question is stimulated by the report of the Commission on Funding of Care and Support, Fairer Care Funding (the Dilnot Commission) and the subsequent Care Act 2014. The enquiry is located within the framework of social citizenship and the new social contract. It argues that the individualistic, contractarian approach, exemplified by the Dilnot Commission and reflected in the Act, raises questions when considered from the perspective of intergenerational fairness. We argue that our concerns with the Act could be addressed by inculcating an expectation of drawing on housing wealth to fund older age: a policy of asset‐based welfare.