Abstracts from Volume 27, Number 3
(September, 2000)

PATHWAYS TO  PRISON:  LIFE HISTORIES OF FORMER CLIENTS OF THE CHILD WELFARE AND JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEMS
Stephen A. Kapp
This study examines the relationship between child maltreatment and future offending from the viewpoint of former clients.  Imprisoned adults describe their experiences in child welfare and juvenile justice system services.  Specifically, those placed out of the home originally into the child welfare system have a different perspective on their path to prison than those placed into the juvenile justice system as delinquents.  The study contributes to the literature by examining the relationship between the services children receive in the child welfare system as well as the juvenile justice system and their imprisonment as adults from a former recipient's point of view.

RACE, CLASS, AND SUPPORT  FOR EGALITARIAN STATISM AMONG THE AFRICAN AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS
George Wilson
This study uses data from the 1990 and 1987 years of the General Social Survey to assess the effects of minority status and position in the class structure in explaining middle class African Americans' support for opportunity-enhancing and outcome-based egalitarian statist policies.  Findings do not provide confirmation for prior research that has found that racial effects are predominant, but has considered a more narrow range of policies and not assessed interaction effects.  First, neither  additive nor interactive effects of race and social class explain support for government policies that are premised on providing people with skills to compete in the labor market.  Second, interaction effects are salient  for government policies that are intended to guarantee socioeconomic outcomes.  Specifically, the joint effects of race and social class explain levels of support that are intermediate between the relatively pro-interventionist  views of working class racial peers and the more anti-statist stance of white middle class counterparts.  The race/class dynamics are interpreted as a product of the extent to which the two policy types conform to the dominant principles of American stratification ideology.  In addition, implications of the findings for understanding the kinds of policies likely to be enacted and racial inequality in the policy implementation process are discussed.  Finally, suggestions for future research that shed additional light on the race/class basis of opinions of egalitarian statism are offered.

URBAN VIOLENCE AMONG AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES:  INTEGRATING FAMILY, NEIGHBORHOOD, AND PEER PERSPECTIVES
M. Daniel Bennett, Jr. and MarkW. Fraser
Even though  rates have declined in recent years, violence is a serious problem in many American cities.  This paper reviews recent perspectives  on violence among young, urban African American males.  Special attention is afforded  the "father absent" hypothesis, the effect of poverty, the character of neighborhoods, the roots of self-efficacy, and peer influence, particularly the influence of street codes.  The latter are argued both to regulate  some situational  behavior and to promote the use of violence in disputes over social status, drugs, and money.  The authors discuss  implications for policy and community development.

FACTORS  ENCOURAGING THE GROWTH OF SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES:  A JAMAICAN CASE STUDY
Eleanor Wint
The concept of sustainable communities assumes a process of social and/or economic development that has a high priority, the needs of the future generation.  However, models of social and economic development employed in developing countries,  must rely heavily on political, social and psychological empowerment techniques being employed at the community level, in order to warrant any type of sustainability becomnes the experience of a Social Work Unit/private company in partnership, becoming involved in a low-income community's drive for sustainable development.   The paper will reflect on the intervention, the analysis of which suggests inclusion and acceptance of a 'third party' support mechanism by the community and the presence of visible political and economic support from the government as the two factors which impact directly on creation of sustainable development initiatives in communities such as this.

THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF GENDER ROLE SOCIALIZATION ON WELFARE POLICY FORMATION
Magalene Harris Taylor
This article addresses a five year welfare reform pilot project conducted at the state level.  The outcome of research findings for this project indicate that factors other than the obvious are barriers to women choosing work over welfare.  Gender role socialization may play an active and very significant role  in this process.  The reality of which may inhibit welfare reform efforts at the state and national levels.

GRANDMA'S BABIES:  THE PROBLEM OF WELFARE ELIGIBILITY FOR CHILDREN RAISED BY RELATIVES
Rebecca L. Hegar & Maria Scannapieco
This article discusses a welfare reform project conducted in the state of Washington.  This five year longitudinal study tracked the market interest of women on welfare during this time.  For the most part, the project was unsuccessful in moving the majority of these women into the labor market.  This article explores an underlying cause and possible explanation for the choices made by these women.

BOOK REVIEWS
Handbook of Social Policy.  James Midgley, Martin B. Tracy and Michelle Livermore (Eds.).  
Reviewed by Shanti Khinduka, Washington University in St. Louis.

World's Apart:  Why Poverty Persists in Rural America.   Cynthia Duncan.  Reviewed by William Rainford, University of California, Berkeley.

Managing to Make it:   Urban Families and Adolescent Success.   Frank Furstenberg Jr., Thomas D. Cook, Jacquelynne Eccles, Glen H. Elder Jr., and Arnold Sameroff.  
Reviewed by Deborah Page-Adams, University of Kansas.

Disposable People:  New Slavery in the Global Economy.   Kevin Bales.  Reviewed by Jo Beall, London School of Economics.

Healing Communities in  Conflict:  International Assistance in Complex Emergencies:  Kimberly A Maynard.  
Reviewed by Nancy Farwell, University of Washington.

Doing Justice:  Liberalism, Group Constructs and Individual Realities.  Leroy H. Pelton

ing apparent.  A case study taken from Kingston, Jamaica recounts and exami. 
Reviewed by Pranab Chatterjee, Case Western Reserve University.

BOOK NOTES
The Strengths of African American Families:   25 Years Later.  Robert B. Hill.

Moving the Mountain:  The Women's Movement in America Since 1960.  Flora Davis.

Lives on the Line:  American Families and the Struggle to Make Ends Meet.  Martha Shirk, Neil G. Bennett and J. Lawrence Aber.

Social Policy in a Changing Society.   Maurice Mullard and Paul Spicker.