Reengineering the Child Support Scheme: An Australian Perspective on the British Government's Proposals

After years of problems with the Child Support Scheme in Britain, the Government has decided to attempt reform again, less than four years after a previous major change was implemented in 2003. The author evaluates these reform proposals, drawing upon his experience in leading a recent major review of child support policy in Australia. While many of the reform measures offer a sensible way forward for child support policy, Britain risks going backwards in terms of community acceptance of the child support obligation. The Government needs to consider the likely impact of its policy settings on private agreements about child support. Ways are proposed both to protect the Treasury and to promote the wellbeing of children by adopting different policy settings that ensure the resident parent has an incentive to bargain for the level of child support required by the new formula. The new formula itself is evaluated in the light of the international research on the costs of children. Ways are also suggested for developing a co-ordinated approach across government to the provision of support services for parents who do not live together.     

Assessing the Effect of Batterer Program Completion on Reassault: An Instrumental Variables Analysis

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the utility of using the instrumental variables (IV) method to estimate batterer program efficacy, i.e., the program effect among batterers who complete batterer programs. This method takes account of possible confounding due to unmeasured traits of compliers and non-compliers. A structural model is used to estimate the impact of program completion on reassault using instrumental variables (IV) regression. Data on 640 batterers enrolled at three batterer programs are used. Results obtained from IV regression are compared with those obtained from a more traditional regression analysis. The results indicate that usual regression methods yield estimates of program effect that may be biased due to confounding by unmeasured batterer characteristics. Unfortunately, IV estimates may be unreliable due to failure of some of the assumptions on which they are based. If equations are adequately identified by the non-linear functional form used to estimate them, then IV results indicate that among a very select group of batterers, program completion significantly reduces the probability of reassault. The implications of confounding due to program non-compliance, program non-enrollment and attrition for future evaluations of batterer programs are discussed.     

儿童福利院失依儿童多元整合教育模式研究

针对福利院失依儿童应采取多元整合教育的模式,以2-7岁失依儿童为研究对象,可通过评估儿童、拟订教学计划、开展教学、评价教学等四个环节开展适应性教学、游戏性教学和发展性教学,达到将其培养成“健康、文明、社会化全人”的教育目标。这种教育模式适当解决了当前儿童福利院失依儿童早期教育中存在的问题,为探索行之有效的特殊教育模式提供了思路。     

“I Fought. I Screamed. I Bit”: The Assertion of Rights Within Historic Abuse Inquiry Transcripts

ABSTRACT

This article examines how treating historic abuse inquiry testimonies as retrospective assertions of rights can help to shed light on how this abuse was able to occur and how memories are recalled in an inquiry environment. It presents its approach as a possible framework for other historians seeking to analyse testimonies with sensitivity. It uses, as an example, a case study from the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse concerning two interrelated “homes” for girls, showing the ways in which abuse survivors can use their testimonies to assert rights denied them in the past and further the goals of public inquiries.     

Inequalities of Redress: Australia’s National Redress Scheme for Institutional Abuse of Children

ABSTRACT

The national redress scheme proposed by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is unique and unusual in the world of government redress. It is unique with its inclusion of both care leavers and non-care leavers (it is the only government scheme to do so), and it is unusual in focusing on sexual abuse alone (18% of government schemes do). These unique and unusual qualities come at a price for justice. Care leavers and non-care leavers are different groups with respect to their experiences of abuse and social status as child victims. Unless these group differences are explicitly recognised in guidelines for the monetary payment, care leavers will be disadvantaged. Two corrective measures are proposed: adopting an inclusive understanding of sexual abuse in closed and open settings, and addressing the negative bias that may result from care leavers’ lower social status as children compared to that of non-care leavers. Their lower status is likely to affect (that is, devalue) judgements of the severity and impact of abuse.     

关于农村留守儿童教育问题的思考

文章以美国教育家杜威提出的"教育即生活,学校即社会"为切入点,结合现阶段我国农村地区普遍出现的"留守儿童"现象,深入剖析个中弊端,提出"补偿教育"的概念和具体措施,从教育角度对"留守儿童"现象造成的社会隐患提出解决思路.     

进城务工人员子女“假日暖巢”构建的实践研究

目前学术界对进城务工人员子女教育问题研究的文章很多,但从学校层面来关心学生的假日生活的研究几乎没有。文章从组织管理、志愿者构成、经费来源等方面探讨了如何在学校层面构建进城务工人员子女＂假日暖巢＂。     

Exploring the failure to protect the rights of the Roma child in Romania

An important test of the progress of development management is its contribution to human rights, especially in transition economies. This article explores the failure to protect the rights of the Roma child in Romania, who are particularly vulnerable to abandonment and institutionalisation. 2008 witnessed the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and several other related celebrations. Nevertheless, within EU borders, minority populations can still lead dismal lives. It is argued that although both the EU and the Romanian government made the Roma's social inclusion a top priority, they failed to bring about substantial improvement. The first contribution of the article is to reinforce the trend within development management of linking policy implementation to the specific needs of the local context. Contemporary policy reports and early empirical results from an exploratory study in Galati, mainly in the area of education, suggest several inter‐related causes of poor implementation, including the national political context, specific issues affecting the Roma and local implementation capacity. The second contribution suggests that ideas from business and management, specifically the notion of organisational receptivity to change, could increase the pace of change. Receptivity provides a framework for understanding local issues and how to manage them. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

德沃金平等权思想之政治平等

罗纳德.德沃金是美国当代新自然法学派的主要代表。他对当今社会普遍存在的分离式民主观提出了批判,对依赖式民主观寄予了希望。     

关于大学生村官介入农村留守儿童问题的探讨

近年来,由于家庭功能的缺失,农村留守儿童出现了一系列问题,引起了社会各界的广泛关注,但相关的解决措施却因没有明确、稳定的责任者而缺乏持续性和系统性。大学生村官由于政策支持、能力匹配、工作积极性高,具备解决农村留守儿童问题的客观和主观条件,可以在社区、学校和家庭层面介入留守儿童的生活、学习、心理、行为等问题,促进留守儿童健康成长。因此,可以明确将解决农村留守儿童问题作为大学生村官的重要工作内容并予以考核。