Influence of Family,Agency, and Caseworker Dynamics on Caregivers' Satisfaction With Their Child Protective Services Experience

Numerous child protective services (CPS) agencies have adopted differential responses as a system reform hypothesized to facilitate family engagement. This research tests a conceptual framework developed to examine dynamics between caregiver, agency, and caseworker factors that are assumed to impact caregiver engagement. Data from a randomized control study and structural equation modeling methods were used to explore the influence of these factors on caregiver satisfaction with their CPS experience. The results indicate that receipt of alternative response, caregivers' ratings of their caseworker's interaction style, and caregivers' positive emotional response influenced satisfaction with their intervention experience, while negative emotional responses did not.     

Poverty amid plenty: structural violence and local governance in western Congo

The protracted conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has drawn sharp criticism regarding the model of liberal peacebuilding employed in the country. Critics emphasise the importance of local ownership of peacebuilding mechanisms at sub-national as well as national levels. This raises questions in relation to the popular legitimacy and efficacy of local mechanisms. Drawing on field research conducted in the relatively affluent province of Bas-Congo in Western Congo, this article highlights a lack of popular legitimacy for provincial-level political authority within the province stemming from an acute marginalisation of the population from local structures of power and wealth. The article also demonstrates the inefficacy of more local, village and neighbourhood-based political structures which, aimed at conflict mitigation rather than transformation, ignore the structural roots of local conflicts and do little to counteract the growing social distrust, conflict and disintegration within local communities.     

Integration of the Family Therapy Specialist into Public School Pupil Personnel Services

SUMMARY

The integration of a full-time family counseling specialist into the Pupil Personnel Service (PPS) Team of the modern public school is described. The roles of the present specialists are delineated as well as the problems inherent within the present Pupil Personnel Services Team. Inclusion of a family counseling specialist on the PPS Team would help schools avoid the antagonist position they find themselves in when a family opposes their suggestions and interventions. In such cases, the PPS Team attempts to wrest control of the case from the parents which subjugates the family, limiting the family's inherent resilience and strength. The family comes to resent the PPS Team, seeing them as blameful and controlling. Conversely, the PPS Team comes to resent the family, claiming it is “dysfunctional” in some way and using diagnostic labels to satisfy themselves that their “expert” actions are justified. This antagonist position in the schools arises more out of fear of litigation than good case management. We propose a new integration of family system and school system. Creation of a family counseling specialist who is highly trained in systems, narrative and structural/strategic family therapy could ameliorate this antagonist problem. Numerous functions for such a new specialty are listed as well as suggestions for including this member into PPS Team work.     

资源型城镇产业接续机制与实证

该文提出“在资源鼎盛期率先打造产业接替的基础条件、规避资源枯竭后再进行转型的世界性难题”的观点,指出矿区工业-生态产业链的结构设计是解决矿区传统经济发展方式与生态环境之间尖锐矛盾的有效途径.以平朔矿区为例,从循环经济角度,分析了矿区工业-生态产业链结构设计的必要性和可行性,探讨了矿区工业-生态产业链结构设计的目标、原则和依据.在矿区现有资源和条件基础上,构建了两条相互依存的产业链:一是以煤为主,电、化、硅铝、建材并举的黑色工业产业链;二是以土地复垦与复垦土地利用为主,种、养、加一体化的绿色生态产业链;对其产业链的结构、功能和效益进行了分析,提出了在矿区工业-生态产业链实施过程中应注意的关键问题.     

融资犯罪刑法规制路径优化探索

以融资犯罪的整体规范视角分析当前合法、非法或者构成犯罪的民间融资行为,有助于全面把握我国刑法规制各类直接或者间接融资犯罪的规范功能与结构,动态地考察与反思当前融资监管行政法律规范与融资市场机制刑法规范之间的缺位、越位、错位问题。解决融资犯罪刑事控制结构性失衡与紊乱的关键在于:在制度执行上实现直接融资与间接融资市场机制刑法平等保护,在规范适用上实现融资犯罪主观与客观构成要件证明压力分散与均衡。     

从结构化视角看中国“公务员热”

公务员热是一个倍受政府、社会和学者关注的现实问题。文章借助结构化理论,从社会结构和个体行动者两方面剖析公务员热,认为该现象的产生是作为国家公务员制度的结构与作为公务员报考者的主体相互作用的结果,这一过程既受到当前中国社会结构的制约和使然,又形塑为社会发展中新的结构要素,进而得出公务员热再结构化的启示。     

创设海关法院：现实与可能

为适应加入世贸组织的新形势 ,我国应建立与对外贸易相协调的专门海关法院。借鉴美国海关法院制度的经验 ,创设适应社会主义市场经济体制要求的中国海关法院制度 ,对扩大改革开放、促进国际贸易意义重大。     

结构性变动对劳动生产率的影响：模型与实证

结构性改革的重点是通过经济结构变动、调整和优化,在市场配置的基础上充分促进劳动力流动,让低效率部门劳动力充分向高效率部门流动,从而激发劳动者的生产积极性,促进劳动生产率增长。因此,理论上两部门结构性效率差异模型分析了高效率部门和低效率部门之间劳动力流动对于激发劳动者积极性、提升劳动生产率的影响。在此基础上,使用1978-2017年城乡结构、产业结构、所有制结构、区域结构等年度时间序列数据,分析各自对于劳动生产率变动的影响。计量结果表明,在各种结构性变动因素影响劳动生产率的作用中,按照大小顺序依次是城市化、区域经济适度均衡并允许有条件区域加快发展、市场化和产业结构优化。因此,要通过有效促进城镇化、发达区域经济适度领先发展、市场化和产业结构高度化,来提高劳动生产率。     

Peer pressure and adolescent substance use

Peer influence is regarded as one of the strongest determinants of juvenile delinquency and particularly adolescent substance use. A commonly held view is that social pressure from friends to use drugs and alcohol is a major contributor to substance use. Yet the notion of peer pressure, implied by the association between peer-group associations and drug behavior, is seldom tested empirically. As a crucial test of the group pressure model, this research examines the role of peer pressure in mediating the effect of differential association on individual use. Moreover, few studies examine the nature of the relationship between peers and substance use as it relates to the processes leading toand from use. Drawing on differential association and social learning theories, our research specifies the social processes (socialization, group pressure, social selection, and rationalization) which dictate particular causal pathways leading to and from substance use and then estimates the reciprocal influences among differential association, social pressure from peers, attitudes favorable toward substance use, and individual use. Using the 1977–1979 National Youth Survey panel data, we estimate a covariance structural equation model allowing for correlated measurement error. In the cross-sectional analyses, we find no main effects of overt peer pressure on substance use. Estimation of the reciprocal effects model also reveals that overt peer pressure does not significantly influence substance use and does not mediate the effect of differential association. Instead, the influences of socialization, social selection, and rationalization play significant roles in understanding substance use.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1994 American Society of Criminology meetings in Miami, Florida.     

MENTORS AND CRIMINAL ACHIEVEMENT*

Much of the research focusing on conventional occupations concludes that mentored individuals are more successful in their careers than those who are not mentored. Early research in criminology made a similar claim. Yet contemporary criminology has all but ignored mentors. We investigate this oversight, drawing on Sutherland's insights on tutelage and criminal maturation and incorporating ideas on human and social capital. We argue that mentors play a key role in their protégés' criminal achievements and examine this hypothesis with data from a recent survey of incarcerated adult male offenders in the Canadian province of Quebec. In this sample, a substantial proportion of respondents reported the presence of an influential individual in their lives who introduced them to a criminal milieu and whom they explicitly regarded as a mentor. After studying the attributes of offenders and their mentors, we develop a causal framework that positions criminal mentor presence within a pathway that leads to greater benefits and lower costs from crime.