Children's experiences of domestic violence: developing an integrated response from police and child protection services

Police notifications of incidents of domestic violence to child protection services constitute an acknowledgement of the harm that domestic violence inflicts on children. However, these notifications represent a substantial demand on child welfare services and the outcomes for children and victims of domestic violence have been questioned. This paper presents findings from the first UK study to examine these notifications in depth and examines the interface between the police and child protection services in responding to domestic violence incidents. The research reports on police interventions in 251 incidents of domestic violence involving children; the communication of information to child protection services and the subsequent filtering and service response. Social workers found that notifications conveyed little information on children's experiences of domestic violence. Forty per cent of families notified had had no previous contact with child protection services in that area, but those cases most likely to receive social work assessment or intervention were those where the case was already open. Notifications triggered a new social work intervention in only 5% of cases. The study also identified a range of innovative approaches for improving the co-ordination of police and child protective services in relation to children's exposure to domestic violence. Arrangements that maximized opportunities for police and social workers to share agency information appeared to offer the best option for achieving informed decisions about the appropriate level of service response to children and families experiencing domestic violence.     

Populism, nationalism, or national populism? An analysis of Slovak voting behaviour at the 2010 parliamentary election

This article explores the impact of populist attitudes on party preferences and voting behaviour at the 2010 Slovak election. Using an original battery of questions on populist attitudes developed by the author and attached to the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems post-election survey, the article addresses hypotheses about the impact of populist attitudes on preferences and choices alongside nationalist and economic attitudes and the socio-demographic ‘transition loser/winner’ divide. It finds that whilst nationalist and economic attitudes are significant predictors of preferences and choices, populist attitudes are much less influential than anticipated.     

Worst Expert Testimony Ever

Much of the literature on expert testimony addresses ways to improve witness credibility. A smaller body of knowledge examines instances of testimony in which the expert makes stylistic or substantive errors. In the present paper, a case of expert testimony is presented in which an expert witness under the duress of strong cross-examinations lost emotional control and spoke inappropriately. The circumstances of the testimony are discussed and alternative paths towards managing such situations are presented.     

A general model of rent seeking for public goods

This paper generalizes the model of collective rent-seeking over a public good. Expanding the rent seeker's consumption bundle to include preferences over the public good and a private good, our results suggest collective rent-seeking is positively related to group size. Although free riding exists within a group, there is not a one-for-one tradeoff. In addition, rent seeking increases with wealth. Finally, total effort expended by both groups increases if either group increases in membership size, except in the case of an extremely lopsided contest. The key condition underlying these results is that the marginal utility of the public good is not inversely related to the private good.     

The radical personality: Social psychological correlates of new left ideology

This paper describes and tests a model of radical personality based upon social psychological correlates of New Left ideology. Following methodological criticism of studies that portrayed radicals as psychologically liberated, a model of psychopolitical rebellion is described as an inverted form of authoritarian personality. This model was tested by administering projective psychological instruments to a large sample of American college students during 1971–73. As hypothesized, radicalism was associated with measures of power motivation, narcissim, self-assertive psychosocial orientation, lack of affiliative motivation, and perceptions of protest and militancy as sources of power. The developmental sources of rebellion are also examined, and the implications for studies of personality and politics are discussed.This study was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (GS35307A1) and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.     

From rhetoric to reality: an NGO’s challenge for reaching the furthest behind

The guiding principle of Agenda 2030 is the commitment to “leave no one behind”. However, as the Millennium Development Goals experience has demonstrated, there remains a “rhetoric-implementation gap” where local stakeholders struggle to realistically respond to policies formulated at the global level. This article proposes a way forward for NGOs seeking to translate the rhetoric of Agenda 2030 into reality. It presents an integrated and multi-sectoral approach to meet the challenges of an NGO working to ameliorate the basic needs of women who are affected by HIV/AIDS and limited WaSH provisions in the impoverished rural community of Lyantonde, Uganda.     

School Adjustment in Rural and Urban Communities: Do Students from “Timbuktu” Differ from Their “City Slicker” Peers?

The primary purpose of our study was to explore the effects of rurality on school adjustment and other school-related variables. Using data from 167,738 7th–12th graders located in a national sample of 185 predominantly white communities, multilevel models were estimated for perceived school performance and school liking using a variety of individual-level (e.g., gender, ethnicity, and peer school performance) and community/school-level variables (e.g., school size, rurality, and percentage free/reduced lunch) as predictor variables. Rurality was not significantly related to school adjustment, but rather, the characteristics of individuals living within those communities were. Results also indicated that participation in school and non-school activities, a strength of rural schools, can play a positive role in school adjustment. Given the significant relationships of income and parental education to all of the school-related variables, a key long-term strategy may lie in improving the economic climate of rural areas.

Feminist forbears

Margaret Foster, Significant Sisters. The Grassroots of Active Feminism 1839–1939 (Penguin Books) Harmondsworth, 1986; David Rubinstein, Before the Suffragettes. Women's Emancipation in the 1890s (Harvester Press) Brighton, 1986.