The identification of child abuse in Harris County in 1998

Characteristics of child abuse cases are not well known. In this study I collected data on 70 child abuse cases that were reported to Children's Protective Services in Harris County in 1998. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors in Harris County that lead to the identification of physical and sexual abuse. In order to answer the questions of who, what, where and when relative to the discovery of abuse I applied the same questionnaire (see Appendix) to each of 35 Sexual Abuse case reports and to each of 35 Physical Abuse/Neglect case reports. Answers to the first four questions were arranged by frequency distribution to show the predominant reporter, the 10 most common indicators, the most common locale, and the most frequent timing. Tables of the age, sex, and ethnicity of the children indicate the identity of those whose victimization was most reported. In addition the relationship between the form questions and the characteristics of the children was explored. A comparison of Sexual Abuse cases with Physical Abuse/Neglect cases was conducted and the results were analyzed and recorded in the Tables. ^ Child maltreatment often has negative short and long term effects on children's mental health and development. Suicide, violence, delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse and other forms of criminality are frequently child abuse related. Early detection and treatment helps to alleviate the myriad mental and physical ailments that untreated victims present as adults. This translates into medical dollar savings. ^ The long term objectives of my research were to reduce the number of undetected and unreported child abuse cases in Harris County by formulating better educational programs and literature for medical professionals and other personnel who are in contact with children. ^

Bayesian models for the analysis of genetic structure when populations are correlated

Motivation: Population allele frequencies are correlated when populations have a shared history or when they exchange genes. Unfortunately, most models for allele frequency and inference about population structure ignore this correlation. Recent analytical results show that among populations, correlations can be very high, which could affect estimates of population genetic structure. In this study, we propose a mixture beta model to characterize the allele frequency distribution among populations. This formulation incorporates the correlation among populations as well as extending the model to data with different clusters of populations. Results: Using simulated data, we show that in general, the mixture model provides a good approximation of the among-population allele frequency distribution and a good estimate of correlation among populations. Results from fitting the mixture model to a dataset of genotypes at 377 autosomal microsatellite loci from human populations indicate high correlation among populations, which may not be appropriate to neglect. Traditional measures of population structure tend to over-estimate the amount of genetic differentiation when correlation is neglected. Inference is performed in a Bayesian framework.

Cross-Country Evidence on Output Growth Volatility: Nonstationary Variance and GARCH Models

This paper revisits the issue of conditional volatility in real GDP growth rates for Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Previous studies find high persistence in the volatility. This paper shows that this finding largely reflects a nonstationary variance. Output growth in the four countries became noticeably less volatile over the past few decades. In this paper, we employ the modified ICSS algorithm to detect structural change in the unconditional variance of output growth. One structural break exists in each of the four countries. We then use generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) specifications modeling output growth and its volatility with and without the break in volatility. The evidence shows that the time-varying variance falls sharply in Canada, Japan, and the U.K. and disappears in the U.S., excess kurtosis vanishes in Canada, Japan, and the U.S. and drops substantially in the U.K., once we incorporate the break in the variance equation of output for the four countries. That is, the integrated GARCH (IGARCH) effect proves spurious and the GARCH model demonstrates misspecification, if researchers neglect a nonstationary unconditional variance.

The Secret Life of Mundane Transaction Costs

Transaction costs, one often hears, are the economic equivalent of friction in physical systems. Like physicists, economists can sometimes neglect friction in formulating theories; but like engineers, they can never neglect friction in studying how the system actually does let alone should work. Interestingly, however, the present-day economics of organization also ignores friction. That is, almost single-mindedly, the literature analyzes transactions from the point of view of misaligned incentives and (especially) transaction-specific assets. The costs involved are certainly costs of running the economic system in some sense, but they are not obviously frictions. Stories about frictions in trade are not nearly as intriguing as stories about guileful trading partners and expensive assets placed at risk. But I will argue that these seemingly dull categories of cost what Baldwin and Clark (2003) call mundane transaction costs actually have a secret life. They are at least as important as, and quite probably far more important than, the more glamorous costs of asset specificity in explaining the partition between firm and market. These costs also have a secret life in another sense: they have a secret life cycle. I will argue that these mundane transaction costs provide much better material for helping us understanding how the boundaries among firms, markets, and hybrid forms change over time.

A Su Salud Injury Prevention expansion: Analysis of injury prevention perceptions in a Hispanic community

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for American ages one to 44 and is ranked in the top ten causes of death for all age groups (CDC, 2006a). A Su Salud Injury Prevention was developed to address injury prevention awareness and education. The program is a mass media education campaign that uses role models, mass media, and community outreach to prevent injury. In 2009, University Health System (UHS) expanded the program. Baseline data were collected from 426 residents in targeted neighborhoods northwest of downtown San Antonio to support the expansion. The purpose of this study was to explore injury perceptions, knowledge, and behaviors of adults living in the expansion area, and define the predominant factors associated with these perceptions. A secondary aim was to assess community awareness and willingness to participate in the program.^ Survey results showed motor vehicle crashes (MVC), falls, drinking and driving, and guns and assaults were considered the most serious injures for adults. The most serious child injuries were MVC, abuse and neglect, falls, and head injuries. Residents were knowledgeable of state seatbelt policy, and over 90% responded as compliant for seatbelt and child car seat use. Most were knowledgeable about drinking and driving state policy and negative outcomes. However, 70% of those reporting driving under the influence of alcohol within the last year engaged in repeat high risk behavior. Men and residents under the age of 55 were more likely to engage in repeat drinking and driving (OR= 3.6, 7.0 respectively). Residents consider injury prevention an important issue, and have interest in a local injury prevention program. Younger women are the most likely to participate in a local program as potential role models and volunteers.^ Results from the study are summarized into an injury prevention and demographic profile of the community that will be used to develop tailored injury prevention messages to create a more effective program, and support program coordinators in effective community engagement. Results will also be used as a comparative basis for future evaluation of a behavioral injury prevention program focused on a predominantly Mexican-American community.^

For Safety’s Sake: A Case Study of School Security Efforts and Their Impact on Education Reform

Several studies have shown that the need to create safe and orderly schools has increasingly been addressed in a manner that disconnects these priorities from broader concerns related to student success, school culture, and child development. In this paper, we explore the consequences of expanding security procedures in response to an incident involving interracial conflict at an urban high school in the United States. We offer this case study to demonstrate how the primacy placed on safety and security resulted in the neglect of other important educational goals, such as academic engagement and a positive school culture. Through an analysis of observational, interview, focus group, and survey data, we show that while it is essential for schools to take measures that ensure the safety of students and staff, it is equally important for safety to be recognized as part of a larger set of goals that schools must concurrently pursue in order to meet the educational and developmental needs of the students they serve.

Family Preservation: The Parents’ Perceptions

This research documents the perspective of 100 parents who had an open case with the Department of Children and Family Service’s (DCFS) regarding their family’s well-being, reasons for referral and satisfaction with services. Two DCFS services, Family Preservation (FP) and routine Family Maintenance (FM) were examined using standardized instruments. Parents’ responses regarding reasons for involvement with the system differed from DCFS administrative data. FP parents had more children, were more likely to be monolingual Spanish speakers, and perceived greater improvement in discipline and emotional care of children and housing than FM parents. FP parents reported being satisfied with services. Implications include supporting community based culturally competent FP programs.

Exploring the Benefits of a Parent Partner Mentoring Program in Child Welfare

Parent partner mentoring programs are an innovative strategy for child welfare agencies to engage families in case planning and service delivery. These programs recruit and train parents who have been involved in the system and have successfully resolved identified child abuse or neglect issues to work with families with current open cases in the child welfare system. Parent partner mentors can provide social and emotional support, advocacy, and practical advice for navigating this challenging system. Insofar as parent partners share similar experiences, and cultural and socioeconomic characteristics of families, they may be more successful in engaging families and building trusting supportive relationships. The current study presents qualitative data from interviews and case studies of families who were matched with a parent partner in a large county in a Midwestern state. Interviews with families, parent partner mentors, child welfare agency staff, and community partners and providers suggest that parent partner programs may be just as beneficial for parent partner mentors as they are for families being mentored. These programs can build professional skills, help improve self-esteem, provide an avenue for social support, and may potentially prevent recidivism. Parent Partner programs also provide a mechanism for amplifying family voice at all levels of the agency.

Can Public Child Welfare Help to Prevent Child Maltreatment? Promising Findings from Los Angeles

This article describes promising findings from the Los Angeles County Prevention Initiative Demonstration Project, a systems change approach to developing relationships between public child welfare, allied public agencies, and community-based networks that offer family-centered services, economic assistance and capacity building to support all kinds of families. It describes the conceptual underpinnings and unique structure of the initiative, the evaluation methods used to assess results, and a pattern of promising results.

Editorial: Take Me Home, Down Country Roads

Those of us committed to the tenets of Family Preservation must advocate for increased awareness and attention to the needs of children and their families in rural America. "Country roads" and the rural spaces they traverse have been eulogized by many poets and song writers as ideal places to live. But they may not be ideal for everyone. The past few months, it has become all too evident that rural America is not immune to acts of extreme violence by troubled children. Even though almost 1/3 of American youth live in rural areas, they have been "virtually ignored by mental health service planners and providers"(Cutrona, Halvorson, & Russell, 1996, p. 217). Mental health risk factors such as poverty, parental alcohol abuse, and family instability are on the rise in rural areas, and there has been an increase in suicide attempts, family violence, depression, and alcohol abuse (Cutrona, Halvorson, & Russell, 1996; Petti & Leviton, 1986; National Mental Health Association, 1988). Native Americans are especially concerned about the increases in child abuse and neglect, depression, substance abuse, and suicide in their communities.

Domestic Violence Resources for Women Receiving Intensive Family Preservation Services

Intimate partner violence is a common correlate of child abuse and neglect and often is not addressed in family preservation services. In many cases, the ideologies of family preservationists and advocates for women 's safety can be at odds. This article presents a study of a collaborative model of intervention, utilizing family preservation workers and community resource practitioners working with domestic violence as group facilitators. The study utilizes a pretest, post-test design to evaluate a domestic violence resource group for women who were concurrently receiving intensive family preservation services. The study examines the effect of the program on participants' self-perceptions regarding self-esteem, independence, goals, social isolation, and assertiveness. Caseworker perceptions of client characteristics also are evaluated, and qualitative responses of the effects of the program are included.

Intelectuales socialistas, estado y educación en Argentina a principios del siglo XX

En este trabajo analizamos las posiciones político educativas de los primeros socialistas en el momento de consolidación de la hegemonía educativa estatal en Argentina. Durante la primera década del siglo XX, un grupo de socialistas ligados a funciones intelectuales, generó múltiples experiencias educativas cuyos programas se homologaban a los de las escuelas estatales. El viraje hacia el abandono de dichas experiencias pedagógicas, en pos de una defensa (crítica) de la educación estatal se inscribe en sus disputas por definir un modo de integración en la vida política desde la doble función particular de constituir un partido de la clase trabajadora, y llevar a cabo, paralelamente, tareas universalizantes vinculadas a sus luchas por la democratización, donde la educación de los trabajadores y sus hijos constituía un tópico central. Veremos también los efectos producidos a partir de los desencuentros entre dos identidades políticas en tensión.

Complejidad de los ecosistemas del norte de Mendoza

El trabajo apunta al estudio de los ecosistemas como entidades complejas y jerárquicas, tanto desde el punto de vista escalar como de su diversidad estructural, en el norte de la provincia de Mendoza, hasta los 34º de latitud sur. Se enfoca el estudio espacial jerárquico desde las diferentes escalas de análisis: micro, meso y macroescala. La macroescala es semejante al nivel de los biomas (macroecosistema); la mesoescala, a los ecosistemas definidos, por la diferenciación geomorfológica, entre otros factores, (mesoecosistema) y la microescala, a los sub-ecosistemas que surgen de las diferenciaciones topográficas y edáficas vinculadas con las formaciones vegetales y su ambiente (microecosistema). Para dicho estudio se toma un factor de control que conduce nuestro camino en el análisis, cual es el clima en sus tres jerarquías. Por otro lado se consideran las diferenciaciones jerárquicas espaciales de los ecosistemas basados en: el clima zonal, las unidades geomorfológicas que modifican el clima zonal y la topografía el suelo con su disponibilidad de agua que modifica el clima local. Los objetivos generales se basan en la identificación y localización de los ecosistemas jerárquicos y su análisis multiescalar integrado. Las hipótesis planteadas afirman que, en las diferentes escalas de ecosistemas, el clima es el denominador común que organiza la distribución de los mismos y además se afirma que existen agentes degradadores en todos los niveles de análisis. Se utiliza el método geográfico. En el análisis, se aplican los métodos deductivo-inductivos vinculando las escalas jerárquicas de los ecosistemas y los estudios de casos. Con este trabajo se pretende profundizar el conocimiento de la complejidad de los ecosistemas mendocinos, con un enfoque original.

Maternidad y exclusión en el contexto de los derechos de la infancia : una reflexión sobre el escenario de intervención

El presente artículo, así como la tesis doctoral de la que forma parte, pretende ser un aporte en la reflexión sobre los imperativos que implican para el Trabajo Social la intervención con familias o más específicamente, mujeres cuestionadas en su rol materno. La violencia en todas sus formas, y en especial aquella provocada por la expulsión del sistema social, es el denominador común de esas mujeres; maternidades en contexto de exclusión, donde la insatisfacción de los Derechos Humanos entra en tensión con los discursos que postulan, más paradójica que paradigmáticamente, los Derechos del Niño.

La descripción en Geografía : un método, una trama

El texto pone en discusión algunas de las causas que llevaron al abandono de la descripción como método y forma discursiva en la Geografía. Si la causa de este abandono tiene que ver con su asociación a la idea de inventario, una revisión de la visión de algunos geógrafos nos muestra que la descripción como método involucra un cierto tipo de explicación geográfica. En el marco de la posmodernidad la idea de descripción como forma discursiva ha sido sustituida por los términos de narración o de relato. En este contexto, la separación entre narración y descripción, planteada por los autores estructuralistas de la crítica literaria, no fue superada. Se mantuvo así, la escisión entre espacio y tiempo. En este artículo proponemos la idea de trama como una forma de establecer un puente entre la descripción como método y como forma de escritura, como manera de aproximar el espacio y el tiempo. La trama es un tejido constituido por la coexistencia en la multiplicidad propia de la urdimbre, en donde se reconocen las trayectorias espacio temporales de cada uno de los componentes de esa multiplicidad.