Generating and using evidence to guide public policy and practice: Lessons from the Campbell Test-bed Project

This paper offers lessons from a three-year Test-bed project that tested systematic review practices developed by the Campbell Collaboration and the Cochrane Collaboration. Under the Test-bed project 14 systematic reviews were completed of interventions in crime prevention, social welfare, and education. (References to the products of these test-bed reviews are included in the reference list, preceded by an asterisk). Building on this experience, the authors recommend structuring future reviews around well-defined review topics more explicitly focused on particular interventions, and constraining literature search to evaluations of relevant interventions. Reviewers should analyze and report findings from RCTs separately from non-RCT studies and report on impact estimates in natural units, instead of relying solely on effect size metrics. Further, reviewers should report intent-to-treat estimates as the causally valid outcomes from RCTs. Analyses of impacts for treated sub-groups should be reported as non-experimental findings. More attention should be given to the minimum detectable effect a study can support, as well as any information on the possible costs and benefits of the intervention. Pooling results from studies of disparate interventions, populations, and contexts is not recommended. Meta-analysis should be reserved for homogeneous clusters of interventions studies. Forest plots are helpful for presenting study findings and confidence limits. However, simple bar charts preserve important information on the base levels for the outcomes. Finally reviewers should define a priori the minimum data set or required elements that allow study inclusion, and use this information systematically in making decisions about what evidence to admit into the review.     

Social Classes and the Neo-Liberal Poverty Regime in Turkey, 2002–2011

The Justice and Development Party (or AKP) era in Turkey has witnessed the emergence of a new welfare regime resting on voluntary public and private transfers. This system has been replacing the former welfare system in which the right to social welfare benefits was constitutionally guaranteed. The new welfare system has tended to distribute transfers on a selective and unequal basis. This article analyses the size and effects of this system using a social class-based analytical framework. In explaining class structure in Turkey, we use the official Household Budget Survey database. The results indicate a massive process of proletarianisation has taken place. Our results indicate that the working classes have constituted the majority of the poor. In this environment, the shares of voluntary public and private transfers in the incomes of households have been rising. For some classes, like rural unemployed, urban unemployed and agricultural labourers, these transfers have captured a very high share of the incomes. These transfers have also been distributed very unequally. Their share in the central budget has also been rising. All these point to the emergence of a new neo-liberal welfare (poverty) regime as part of a new labour control regime.     

Psychotropic Medications for Youth in Child Welfare: Developing and Pilot-Testing A Field Guide for Team Decision-Making

High rates of children involved with the child welfare system are prescribed psychotropics. In response, federal legislation has mandated state child welfare agencies to develop policies to improve the coordination and oversight around the use of psychotropics. This project aimed to support such policies by developing and pilot-testing a field guide for team discussions and decision-making related to the use of psychotropics among youth in child welfare. We used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework to engage a team of local stakeholders, including former youth in foster care and parents, in the research. We developed a field guide to facilitate team discussions and decisions around the individual needs and preferences of youth and families, and we pilot-tested the field guide with child welfare staff, parents, and care team members in seven team meetings. Parents and care team members, in particular, highly valued the guide and found it useful to increase knowledge and improve practices such as side effect monitoring and information sharing. Child welfare responses were more mixed, and some reported feeling burdened by the additional tasks. More work is needed to integrate the guide into routine child welfare practice and reduce burden on staff.     

CHALLENGES FACING CROSSOVER YOUTH: AN EXAMINATION OF JUVENILE‐JUSTICE DECISION MAKING AND RECIDIVISM

Although a substantial amount of research documents the increased likelihood of maltreated youths to engage in delinquency, very little is known about them once they cross into delinquency. These youths are often referred to as “crossover youth,”“dual jurisdiction,” or “dually involved” youth, and based on a growing amount of research, it appears these youths face a number of challenges. They have significant educational problems, high rates of placement changes and high rates of substance abuse and mental health problems, and when they enter the juvenile justice system, they are more likely to stay longer and penetrate deeper into the system then their nonmaltreated counterparts. Using data from Los Angeles County (N= 581), the purpose of this study is to identify what characteristics among a crossover population are more likely to result in receiving harsher dispositions and higher recidivism rates.     

残疾人最低生活保障：问题与制度完善

重视残疾人最低生活保障,不仅是完善社会保障体系的重要内容,更是衡量社会公正与文明进步程度的基本指标。目前我国残疾人最低生活保障存在着低保对象的核定与隐私保护之间的矛盾、最低生活保障线单一,救助倾斜不够和低保覆盖面窄等问题。为此,要更新对残疾人救助理念,实现救助社会化,提供综合性救助和完善分类救助,提高对重度残疾人的救助标准,以残疾人保障与残疾人服务为重点,推进残疾人最低生活保障事业的发展。     

中国社会政策转型与国家角色的转变

文章借助蒂特马斯对社会政策“三分法”的划分方式，分析了自改革开放以来中国社会政策体系的变迁过程及其中国家角色的转变轨迹。文章发现，由于时代背景、执政理念和政府财政能力的不同，社会政策经历了从制度再分配模式向剩余式模式的转变，并正在朝一个国家、市场、社会和个人多元承担的社会福利责任体系转型。在这一过程中，国家角色经历了从撤出再到回归的过程。     

劫持航空器罪若干疑难问题研究

在我国刑法中,劫持航空器罪的行为对象主要是民用航空器,但也不排除特定条件下的国家航空器。本罪中的"暴力"是专指对驾驶、操作人员实施袭击或其他身体强制。"胁迫",要求不但能引起对方恐惧,还必须达到足以压制对方反抗程度。"其他行为"是指违背航空器合法控制人的意志且属于暴力、胁迫之外的,使航空器合法控制人不知反抗的行为。行为人只有着手实施了"劫持"行为并实际控制了该航空器的程度,才是犯罪既遂。     

Thoughts on Juvenile Justice Systems and Research

This article updates comments published in this journal in 1994 about the nature of the American juvenile justice system, which laid out reasons that it might not serve as a useful model for other nations. Since that time, the US system has moved further right towards the justice model and away from the welfare model. Individualistic philosophies and political conservatism have combined to produce a more adult-like and punitive juvenile system, applied to increasing numbers of minors and to increasingly younger minors. Successful demonstrations of community absorption or treatment have been too few to balance the rightward direction. European scholars are urged to undertake increased studies in two critical areas: (1) the nature, functions, and comparative differences in their juvenile justice systems, and (2) the nature of local communities and their contributions to patterns of delinquency.     

“陌生人社会”青年再组织化路径研究——基于广州青年公益组织现状调查

近年来,广州青年公益组织发展迅速,青年参与公益活动的意识与行为盛况空前.这些开放、创新、倡导公益的社会组织凝聚了大批青年,是当代青年群体再组织化的重要方式.研究主要采用定性的个案访谈与文献资料分析方法,结合当前的时代特征,初步阐释在“陌生人社会”背景下,广州青年公益组织成立的起源、宗旨使命以及组织特征等,多角度剖析广州青年热衷参与公益组织与公益行动的原因,期望通过青年再组织的路径探析一窥社会再组织化的发展方式.     

What Happened?

ABSTRACT

This article presents an overview and historical analysis of child welfare from its inception in the 19th century through the Social Security Act of 1935 and into the present. An argument is made that the historical de-professionalization of child welfare is reflected in changing societal values and resultant legislation framing investments in child welfare, as well as the influence of child welfare on the quality of services to children and families. De-professionalization has resulted in lowering the professional credentials of child welfare staff, increasing levels of employee turnover, the formulation of questionable policies, all affecting the quality of services to children and families. Implications of the findings for the re-professionalization of child welfare and for policy and practice are discussed.