Obstacles to Inter-Racial Understanding: Some Clinical Implications for Mental Health Practitioners in Predominantly White Institutions

in the context of predominantly white institutions. In this paper concepts such as projection, projective identification, splitting, scapegoating, superiority and denial will be employed to illustrate why racial prejudice is a deeply-rooted collective psychological disorder that affects even educated mental health practitioners. Clinicians have an ethical responsibility to demonstrate cultural sensitivity and empathy when working with minority clients, colleagues, staff and students, to examine and root out their own prejudices, and to encourage others to do the same.

Is Everyone Rated Equal? An Examination of Factors Related to Sexual Risk in Ethnically Diverse Male Adolescents Who Have Sexually Offended

As the juvenile justice system has evolved, there has been a need for clinicians to make judgments about risk posed by adolescents who have committed sexual offenses. There are inherent difficulties in attempting to assess risk for violence among adolescents due to the developmental changes taking place and the absence of well-validated instruments to guide risk prediction judgments. With minority groups increasing in numbers in the U.S., it is likely that professionals will encounter minority individuals when conducting risk assessments. Overall questions regarding race/ethnicity have been neglected and there are few if any published research that explores risk factors with minority juvenile sex offenders. The present study examined whether differences exist between Caucasian and racial/ethnic minority adolescent sexual offenders on four risk assessment measures (J-SORRAT-II, J-SOAP-II, SAVRY, and ERASOR). The sample of 207 male adolescent sexual offenders was drawn from treatment facilities in a Midwestern state. Overall results indicated that minority adolescent sex offenders had fewer risk factors endorsed than Caucasian youth across all risk assessment tools. Exploration of interactions between race and factors such as: family status, exposure to family violence, and family history of criminality upon the assessment tools risk ratings yielded non-significant findings. Limitations, suggestions for future directions, and clinical implications are discussed.

Gator Launch: Developing a Minority Career-Mentoring Program

Retaining minority students on college campuses is an important factor for maintaining the rich diversity of a university student body. This session will provide a look at the development of a career-mentoring program for minority college students to enhance retention and career success beyond graduation.

Reaffirm to Affirm: Enhancing Minority Faculty Development at the PWI

The objective of this roundtable discussion is to examine the preparation of minority faculty as it relates to succeeding in an academic career. Although substantial research has been conducted on faculty preparation (Gaff, 1997; Garcia, 2000, Tice, Gaff, and Pruitt-Logan, 1998), conversations fall short when it comes to ongoing success development of faculty. This discussion will focus primarily on initiatives/plans to encourage the expansion and success of minority faculty at PWI's. For the purposes of this discussion, minority faculty is defined in terms of race/ethnic and gender.

"CREATING PARTNERSHIPS AND A SUPPORTIVE SYSTEM IN THE MINORITY COMMUNITY"

"We have succeeded in gaining a tremendous amount of support in the community and are recognized as a viable member of the minority community in Jackson, Michigan."

“MINORITY STUDENTS WITHIN A COLLEGE OF BUSINESS: HEARING THE VOICES”

"In recognition of the dynamic interplay among academic and social aspects of any student's campus experience, our institution has implemented an Innovative Community Initiative (ICI) which provides a panoply of support programs for students of color."