The welfare family

This article analyzes family transformations resulting from the impact of social welfare policies and modernization in Guadeloupe, an island in the French Caribbean. The analysis is taken from a study of three-generational families in which a “pivot” member between 49 and 53 years of age, one parent, and one adult child were interviewed. The study, combining both quantitative and qualitative methods, concerns the forms of cultural, domestic, and economic exchanges between the generations, in addition to the various social welfare allowances received by the members of the families who were interviewed. The results show the complementarity between public and family forms of support. They also show how social welfare benefits have transformed the respective social status of different generations, the functioning of family solidarity, and the ways that poverty is being fought.     

The housing and neighborhood conditions of America's children: patterns and trends over four decades

This paper uses national and metropolitan area data from American Housing Surveys over four decades to examine the patterns and trends in the housing and neighborhood circumstances of children. Children across the income distribution have experienced dramatic improvements in the physical adequacy of their dwellings and in crowding but significant deterioration in housing affordability. Poor children are often in greatest jeopardy, with the rate of complaints about crime 25 percent higher in 2005 than in 1975, and the rate of school complaints twice as high in 2005 than 1975. Poor children also experience little payoff from residential mobility in terms of physical dwelling adequacy, crowding, affordability, or adequacy of schools, though moves are associated with fewer complaints about crime. However, it is the near poor – those between 101–200 percent of poverty – and not the poor who appear to be most affected by the tightness or looseness of the housing market.     

Why terrorists target children: Outbidding,desperation, and extremism in the Peshawar and Beslan school massacres

ABSTRACT

Why do terrorists engage in behavior that is extreme even by their own admission—killing children? This behavior poses a major puzzle to our understanding of terrorism, but it has been surprisingly underexplored. This article addresses the question of why terrorists intentionally target children with a comparative study of the two deadliest attacks in which children were deliberately targeted by a militant organization: the Peshawar (2014) and Beslan (2004) school massacres. The article identifies two factors that increase the likelihood that a terrorist group will target children. The first is the presence of internal rifts within an already highly violent organization. This is likely to trigger outbidding and, thus, result in more brutal attacks. The second is existentially threatening external pressure, which seriously weakens the group and, thus, leads it to select soft and shocking targets, such as schools. The findings are based on evidence drawn from primary and secondary sources, including interviews conducted in Peshawar and Islamabad, Pakistan, and Moscow, Russia.     

Seeking Systemic Change: Risk and Protective Factors Affecting Low-Income Urban Youth

This themed issue presents five articles tackling the topic of risk and protective processes affecting children and adolescents living in urban poverty. Through their research, the authors seek understanding of the particular challenges that low-income urban youth face, with the ultimate goal of understanding how best to intervene at various levels of the ecological system. Within this broad theme, studies examine specific stressors, mediators, and moderators that impact the mental health of youth living in urban poverty. The final article presents a data-driven, community-based intervention for this population.     

完善我国困境儿童救助立法问题研究

我国政府一贯重视儿童福利事业与权益保障问题,但目前一些地方的"婴儿安全岛"所遭遇暂停或关闭的现实问题,从一个侧面反映了我国困境儿童救助体系与救助立法方面仍存在不足。我们应当加快立法步伐,通过制定《儿童社会福利条例》,修订《收养法》,做好与《收养法》相关制度的配套完善工作,建立困境儿童的监护干预、监护权撤销与转移制度等,进一步健全和完善我国儿童福利与权益保护法律制度,全方位提高我国困境儿童救助与法治保障水平。     

Risky Firearms Behavior in Low-Income Families of Elementary School Children: The Impact of Poverty, Fear of Crime, and Crime Victimization on Keeping and Storing Firearms

This report examines possession and storage of firearms in low-income urban families with at least one child between 8 and 12 years of age. The data primarily consisted of responses to a survey administered to parents, but these data were supplemented by records obtained from discussion groups composed of children between 8 and 12 years of age. The data were collected from five low-income neighborhoods in a medium sized city in the Pacific Northwest as part of a larger study focusing on the presence of risk factors for substance abuse, violence, and gang activity. All five neighborhoods are known to be plagued by poverty, violence, substance abuse, and gang activity. To make our findings more understandable, we compared our findings from these neighborhoods to similar data from a middle-class neighborhood. Middle-class parents were twice as likely to have firearms in their homes, but were much less likely to keep them loaded and/or unlocked. High rates of victimization, fear of crime, self-protective behavior, and exposure to threats or attacks were associated with keeping firearms for protection and engaging in risky gun behavior in the home.     

Suicide Among Children and Adolescents in a Province of Turkey

Abstract:  Despite well-documented increases in completed suicides among children, accurate knowledge of the characteristics of these suicides is very limited. The aim of this study was to investigate general characteristics of suicide among children and adolescents in the province of Istanbul and to evaluate obtained results in the light of the literature. Data were collected from autopsy records of the Morgue Department of Institute of Forensic Medicine, Istanbul. General characteristics of completed suicides among children and adolescents between 2001 and 2005 were retrospectively reviewed. The study included 176 suicides aged 9–19 years. The overwhelming majority of the suicides (92%) were aged 15–19 years. More than half of the suicides (60%) were male. The most frequent means of suicide was hanging (55%) followed by firearms (20%) and jump or descent from height (15%).     

现行民法对亲子关系外部调整的缺失与建构

随着社会的发展,人们越来越重视对人身权的保护,对亲子关系的研究和保护也逐渐受到关注。诱拐儿童、错抱子女、探望权纠纷等都属于第三人侵害亲子关系的行为,但我国现行《婚姻法》仅仅涉及对亲子关系的内部调整,整个民法都欠缺对亲子关系的外部调整,造成第三人侵害亲子关系的行为无法得到有效的制约。从私法保护的角度出发,对第三人侵害亲子关系的行为宜明确规定"父母照顾权"、构建以"请求权"为核心的二元保护模式、重视精神损害赔偿。     

山东省农村留守儿童犯罪问题对策研究

农村留守儿童的健康成长,关系广大农民群众的切身利益,关系社会主义新农村建设和社会和谐稳定,也关系国家未来。做好留守儿童工作是一个复杂的系统工程,需要各级党委政府加强领导,有关部门和群团组织共担责任,建立关爱留守儿童的长效工作机制;需要家庭、学校、社会三方面共同努力,构建”三位一体”的关爱教育网络;需要制定和完善相关政策措施,解决根本性的问题;需要全社会的积极参与,建立综合性的社会支持体系。     

科学看待儿童读经

从时间、内容、方法和效果等四个维度认真剖析儿童读经现象,假若选择读经的时间适宜、经文思想性合乎当代中国的时代精神、经文难度系数得当、学生阅读方法科学,那么,适度让儿童读一些中国经典文章是一种妥当的教育方式,这样做既有利于中国优秀经典文化和中华传统美德在新时代的传承与发展,也有利于让儿童逐渐生成文化自觉意识和文化认同感,进而生成既与时代精神相对接又有中国文化根基的健全人格,还有利于儿童身心的"可持续性发展".