Gender Differences in the Educational Expectations of Urban,Low-Income African American Youth: The Role of Parents and the School

This study examined how youths’ gender is related to the educational expectations of urban, low-income African American youth, their parents, and their teachers. As predicted, African American boys (ages 9–16) reported lower expectations for future educational attainment than did their female counterparts. Parents and teachers also reported lower expectations for African American boys (ages 6–16) than for girls. These findings held even when controlling for academic achievement. Contrary to predictions, the magnitude of the difference in expectations for males vs. females did not increase as a function of youths’ age. In keeping with our hypotheses, parental expectations fully mediated the relation between youths’ gender and youths’ expectations. Finally, certain school-based factors (i.e., positive teacher expectations and positive youth perceptions of the school environment) appeared to protect youths’ expectations from the deleterious impact of low parental expectations.

Effects of Victimization on the Belief in a Just World in Four Ex-Yugoslavian Countries

Levels of support for just world beliefs among young adults (N = 598) from four ex-Yugoslavian countries—Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Slovenia—were compared, taking into account victimization experiences and the general belief in a just world. Being a victim affected an individual’s belief in a just world in the two less economically favored contexts: Victims of exclusion in Macedonia and victims of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina were less likely to believe in a just world than non-victims. These victimization variables partly explained why the mean scores of these two countries were less than those of the two others. A deleterious effect of cumulative negative events on belief in a just world was identified, in parallel with a lower endorsement of the belief when the first victimization occurred more recently.     

Non-biased lineup instructions do matter – a problem for older witnesses

Abstract

From the limited literature on older witnesses’ identification performance it is known that they are less accurate on lineups compared to younger witnesses. What is less certain is why they show this age deficit and what can be done to aid their performance. Witnesses forgot being given non-biased lineup instructions informing witnesses that the perpetrator may or may not be present. More older witnesses than younger witnesses forgot and witnesses who failed to report remembering these instructions were significantly less accurate on the lineups. In addition, the current study investigated the use of sequential lineup presentation and stringent decision criteria to aid the performance of older witnesses. Sequential presentation was beneficial to both younger and older adults when the lineup was target absent (TA) but was detrimental when the lineup was target present (TP). Stringent decision criteria had no significant beneficial effect. Future directions for aiding older witnesses’ performance are discussed.     

Public housing authorities: Determining an appropriate role in a national preservation strategy

Abstract

This paper examines the obstacles and issues involved in developing a comprehensive preservation agenda for public housing and explores the capacity of public housing authorities (PHAs) to meet the current and future demand for affordable housing. The paper discusses the current challenges facing the public housing program and PHAs and examines the roles and functions PHAs can assume in the current preservation and affordable housing crisis. Six specific roles for PHAs are included: resolving the equity/community dilemma, improving management, articulating modernization needs and carrying out modernization programs, preventing the loss of public housing units through sales and demolition, assuming management of privately owned subsidized housing, and developing new public housing. Although there is also much potential in nonprofits as providers of low‐income housing, they must be joined by PHAs in a comprehensive low‐income housing production and preservation strategy.     

From dependency to self‐sufficiency: An appraisal of the gateway transitional families program

Abstract

This article presents a longitudinal evaluation of the Gateway Transitional Families Program, an innovative self‐sufficiency program designed to help public housing residents leave public housing for their own homes. The evaluation followed participants and a comparison group over six years to isolate program impacts on employment and receipt of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), food stamps, and housing assistance.

Many participants dropped out of the program. Difficulty in juggling educational and child‐rearing responsibilities, noncompliance with program or public housing regulations, low wages while in the program, impatience with the length of the program, and staff shortages and turnover contributed to the dropout rate. Those who finished the program experienced modest increases in income, decreases in receipt of AFDC and food stamps, and reduced reliance on housing assistance relative to comparison group members. Furthermore, graduates were more likely than comparison group members to have bought a home.     

Challenges confronting nonprofit housing organizations’ self‐sufficiency programs

Abstract

In recent years, interest has grown at the federal level in strategies to combine subsidized housing with programs promoting household self‐sufficiency. This article explores how nonprofit housing organizations conceptualize their self‐sufficiency programs for their residents. A broad definition of self‐sufficiency is presented—one that is not exclusively focused on the individual and, instead, also includes program strategies that are focused on changing the context in which individuals live and work.

The paper then analyzes the relationship between the self‐sufficiency strategies being implemented in the nonprofit housing world and how these organizations will be affected by welfare reform, the shrinking and restructuring of federally subsidized housing, the emergence of block grant job training and workforce development programs, and the general devolution of government programs into ever more fungible pots at state and local levels. These transformations in the domestic policy agenda will present challenges to nonprofit housing organizations and to the goal of promoting self‐sufficiency.     

Housing,Welfare Reform,and Self‐Sufficiency: An Assessment of the Family Self‐Sufficiency Program

Abstract

Recently passed welfare reform legislation may have adverse impacts on the incomes of public and assisted housing residents and hence on the rental income of housing authorities. One way to dampen these impacts is to help welfare‐reliant tenants find jobs. The Family Self‐Sufficiency (FSS) programs sponsored by many housing authorities may be an important means of doing this. This article presents the findings of an early study of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's FSS program and explores the program's potential for dampening the impacts of welfare reform. The study involved a mail survey of the coordinators of 564 FSS programs.

The survey results indicate a surprising lack of interest in the early FSS program among potential participants. The results also indicate that these programs are inadequately staffed, and that the programs’ potential to dampen the effects of welfare reform are limited by the relatively small percentage of welfare‐reliant residents enrolled.     

Addressing Restrictive Zoning for Affordable Housing: Experiences in Four States

Affordable housing development in suburban locales is often constrained by zoning and other municipal land-use restrictions. This article explores experiences in four states that have been recognized for exemplary interventions that address “exclusionary zoning.” Using quantitative and qualitative methods, the article examines overall production levels resulting from the specific program, the extent to which such production is occurring in locales with more White residents and more higher-income residents, and the levels of compliance with state-specified goals, where such goals exist. When possible, cross-state comparisons are provided. Although there are clear signs of progress, with municipalities increasing their affordable housing stocks and with some of this production occurring in locales that probably would not have developed such housing without such state (or county) intervention, the pace has been slow. A number of recommendations are offered for these and other states contemplating strategies to address exclusionary land-use practices.     

Animal rights and violent protest

The arguments for the better treatment of animals underwent a dramatic change in the 1970s with the publication of Peter Singer's Animal Liberation and the work of Tom Regan. These new works challenged the previous moral orthodoxy which had suffused the animal welfare/protection movement and espoused the view, in the case of Regan, that animals had rights or, according to Singer, that they should be granted ‘equal consideration’. The 1970s also saw the emergence of new groups, such as the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), who were not only willing forcibly to free animals from laboratories, but also to employ violence in the fight against animal abuse. This article seeks to show that the appearance and development of such groups is related to the growth of the demand for animal rights/liberation at a philosophical level.