UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF BARGAINING FOR ADOPTION ASSISTANCE PAYMENTS

Families that adopt children who are in foster care may receive monthly adoption assistance payments to offset the cost of raising the adopted child. The amount of the adoption assistance payment is the subject of bargaining between the family and the child welfare authority. This article uses a bargaining model to highlight factors that, in addition to the expected costs of raising the child, might influence the outcome of bargaining over adoption assistance payments. Findings indicate that married parents who adopt children already in their care have an advantage in bargaining, and single women who adopt their kin or foster children have a disadvantage in bargaining.     

One of the family: Domestic service in early modern Japan

This study investigates the effect of domestic service upon social practice and asks if domestic service led to self-affirmation and individualistic behavior in early modern Japan. It begins by describing various employees classified as domestic servants. Next the role of the servant as a member of the employer's family shows fluid kinship relations that resulted in changes in the family system and family practice. Contemporary theater is used to address some of the conflicting issues that these changes offered as challenges to patriarchal authority and how society reacted to these changes.     

Improvisation and Teaching Negotiation: Developing Three Essential Skills

The notion of an adaptable negotiator, who can respond to any situation he or she encounters, resonates with every negotiation expert. Unexpected things happen in negotiation, and negotiators must be able to adapt in fleet and effective ways. Dealing with the unexpected, responding “in the moment,” and adapting effectively to sudden changes — these are the skills of an improvisational artist, and they are effective skills for negotiators to learn. How can improvisational skills be taught to negotiation students so that they will be able to draw upon these skills in the heat of a negotiation or mediation? By bringing together teachers of improvisation in various disciplines, we explored how improvisation is currently applied and taught in theater, business, and psychotherapy. We then developed some ideas about ways in which teachers of negotiation might begin to incorporate improvisation as part of the negotiation lesson plan.     

Leisure Experience, Prison Culture, or Victimization? Sex Offenders Report on Prison Gambling

Opportunities for gambling in mainstream North American society have increased greatly over the past two decades. Despite the popularity of legalized gambling and attention it is receiving among social science researchers and economists, gambling within jails and prisons has been overlooked. This study utilized a semistructured interviewing procedure (Smith, 1995) to gain information about prison gambling from 11 sexual offenders on parole—all had spent significant time incarcerated. Qualitative analyses of responses suggest that offenders may gamble in various forms and for a variety of reasons, including a means of alleviating boredom, providing excitement and risk, and an opportunity to socialize. Prison gambling appears to be a complex phenomenon. A substantial amount of prison gambling seems to be associated with certain psychosocial benefits, while for a minority of cases there may be severe violence and victimization.