Practice tips for managing challenges in parenting capacity assessments in child protection court

Courts frequently rely on parenting capacity assessments to make decisions about visitation and case progress in child protection court. Although these evaluations can provide valuable information to courts, they often involve assessing areas of human behavior that are not clearly defined in the literature. For example, mental health professionals are often tasked with identifying risk and protective factors for child maltreatment while identifying factors that can impede progress towards reunification. Although some of these factors may be easy to identify and assess (e.g., symptoms of mental illness or substance abuse), others may be more challenging. For example, factors such as denial and minimization about risk factors and maltreatment, a parent(s)’ ability to protect their child(ren) from future incidents of maltreatment, the parent(s)’ potential for change, and the consideration of what is in the best interest of the child are hard to assess. This article will provide a summary of the research in these areas, provide tips for managing these areas, and highlight directions for future investigation that will help inform parenting capacity assessments in child protection court.     

Internal capabilities,external structural holes network positions,and knowledge creation

Social network theory suggests that firms bridging structural holes by connecting disconnected partners in a network benefit from timely access to diverse knowledge. However, the existing literature reports mixed evidence with regard to the performance implications of this view. Our study examines how a firm’s diverse knowledge base and knowledge-processing capabilities affect knowledge creation when a firm bridges multiple structural holes in an inter-firm network. The model is tested on a sample of 191 firms in high-technology industries. The dependent variable, knowledge creation, was measured by the number of patents generated. Results show that when a firm spans multiple structural holes, its diverse technological knowledge facilitates knowledge creation. However, when a firm already possesses well-developed knowledge acquisition capabilities, spanning structural holes reduces knowledge creation. This paper suggests that internal knowledge base and knowledge-processing capabilities determine the impacts of external network positions on firm knowledge creation. It provides implications on how a firm best capitalizes on external network positions.     

Creatively interpreting policy to move science forward: Implementing participatory technology assessment at NASA

Entrepreneurial strategies and tactics are often subtle and indiscrete, adding to the mystery of how one goes about being an entrepreneur, particularly within bureaucratic agencies that are often set up to constrain such behaviors. The authors use a case study of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s public engagement practices to examine how entrepreneurs shift policy interpretations with administrative agencies. Findings describe three entrepreneurial strategies and tactics: (1) using one-on-one or small group meetings to connect to different audiences across organizations; (2) tying new policy interpretations to existing ones, so changes seem less radical; and, (3) positioning oneself in the middle of the action to control both narrative and progress. Conclusions discuss both practical mechanisms for shifting away from the status quo, and the theoretical contributions to a growing body of literature on strategic and tactical approaches of bureaucratic entrepreneurs in democratic systems.     

Latent Fingermark Aging Patterns (Part IV): Ridge Width as One Indicator of Degradation

This fourth article of the series is taking an in‐depth analysis at the visible aging of latent fingermarks regarding changes in ridge widths over time. The objective is to quantify and statistically describe significant ridge size variations under controlled indoor conditions. The effect of three environmental variables are examined: type of secretion (sebaceous‐ and eccrine‐rich) and type of substrate (glass and polystyrene) when aged in three light conditions (direct natural light, shade, and dark). Prior to width measurements, fresh and aged fingermarks were powdered with titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and sequentially photographed at predetermined times over 6 months. Three independent observers measured the ridges from thirty predetermined locations using strategically placed intersecting lines on the print. Results indicate that fingermarks deposited on glass are more resilient to degradation compared with those deposited on plastic. The presence of direct natural light plays a negligible role on degradation compared to secretion and substrate types.     

“We All Make Mistakes”: the Communist Party of Australia and Khrushchev's Secret Speech, 1956

This article examines the impact of the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). Specifically it focuses on the reverberations of Khrushchev's “secret speech” within the CPA leadership for the first six months of 1956. It argues that, in contrast to the received wisdom, the response of the leadership was characterised by confusion rather than consistency, division rather than unanimity. This had implications for CPA members as they struggled to come to terms with the line of the leadership and the authenticity or otherwise of the New York Times version of Khrushchev's speech. The words of [Khrushchev's] speech were like bullets, and each found its place in the hearts of the veteran Communists. Tears streamed down the faces of men and women who had spent forty or more years, their whole adult lives, in the movement […]. 1     

Distorting Vicarious Liability

The note considers the decision of the Court of Appeal in Maga v The Trustees of the Birmingham Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church and analyses the application of the status based risk approach to vicarious liability in that case. It considers its application outside of the area of clerical sexual abuse, and also the role in vicarious liability of job conferred status which materially increases the risk of the commission of a tort, or helps to facilitate a tort.     

A Bayesian Multilevel Modeling Approach to Time-Series Cross-Sectional Data

Joseph Bafumi Department of Government, Dartmouth College,6108 Silsby HallHanover, NH 03755 e-mail: joseph.bafumi{at}dartmouth.edu Luke Keele Department of Political Science, Ohio State University,2137 Derby Hall, 154 N Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210 e-mail: keele.4{at}polisci.osu.edu David Park Department of Political Science, George Washington University,1922 F Street, N.W. 414C, Washington, DC 20052 e-mail: dkp{at}gwu.edu e-mail: bshor{at}uchicago.edu (corresponding author) The analysis of time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) data hasbecome increasingly popular in political science. Meanwhile,political scientists are also becoming more interested in theuse of multilevel models (MLM). However, little work existsto understand the benefits of multilevel modeling when appliedto TSCS data. We employ Monte Carlo simulations to benchmarkthe performance of a Bayesian multilevel model for TSCS data.We find that the MLM performs as well or better than other commonestimators for such data. Most importantly, the MLM is moregeneral and offers researchers additional advantages. Authors' note: A previous version of this article was presentedat the 2005 Midwest Political Science Meeting. We would liketo thank the following for comments and advice in writing thispaper: Andrew Gelman, Nathaniel Beck, Greg Wawro, Sam Cooke,John Londregan, David Brandt. Any errors are our own.