Homeless Children Having Children

Homeless teenagers who have babies pose a significant population of concern for those in health and human services. This article explores demographic, structural, and economic changes for homeless young and single-parent families. It proposes that their homelessness is due to these barriers and the problems that result. Case studies illustrate the process of troubled teens becoming homeless women with babies. Policy recommendations for assisting these youngsters are offered

What Google Teaches Us About The Child Rights Movement

Technology both helps and hinders what we know about human rights. Use of Google is of central importance to both the Sociology of Knowledge and the creation of internet literacy. In this study, different search engines are compared regarding content of “child rights” in the fifty United States. Findings include: importance of algorithmic loading of sites; number of hits may not reflect the importance or accuracy of a topic; different search engines produce different findings; and personalized searches result in different results. Personalization of searches in accordance to one’s previous search history may result in people being given information that reinforces their views, not challenge them. This means that people opposed to child rights may not be afforded the same information as people who have a search history supporting them. Because searches do not necessarily yield the same information about human rights, scholars and the public must be attentive to adequately assess the accurate or skewed nature of a keyword search

Complexity in the Determination of Child Abuse: A Statistical and Rights Based Approach

(Excerpt) Every year more than 3.6 million referrals are made to child protection agencies, which involve more than 6.6 million children. A determination of child abuse is a complex process for both courts and child protective service workers. When an allegation of suspected child abuse is made findings may, or may not, lead to court action. Courts rely upon accurate determinations of abuse. While some cases are clear-cut, many are not. The lack of clear-cut data and legal findings, however, does not dissuade the press and public from making determinations of whether children are being adequately protected, and whether parents are being mistreated in child abuse cases. This results in the generation of many conversations on the issue without people considering the genuine complexities of these cases. Child Protective Services employees are placed in a difficult situation; if these employees fail to identify that a child is at risk they are deemed incompetent, and if they allege that a child is at risk when their parents disagree, they are also deemed incompetent. Seldom are they acknowledged to be heroes when they make the “right” decision. This essay examines the problems faced in the determination of child abuse and uses a statistical model to explore best-practices in such challenging situations

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: Homeless Children and Families in Small-Town America

Homelessness in small towns and rural areas is on the rise. Drawing on interviews with and case studies of three hundred children and their families, with supporting statistics from federal, state, and private agencies, Vissing illustrates the impact this social problem has upon education, health, and the economy. Mixes a wide reading of available studies and investigations with her own interviews and field work. . . . The blend of broad, faceless, statistical descriptions with firsthand commentary by the humans behind them makes for compelling reading and a powerful argument. -- Arkansas Historical Quarterly This very readable book offers a valuable addition and counterpoint to the abundance of literature about the homeless in urban America. Vissing dispels many of the traditional myths about homelessness in small-town America -- The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciencehttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_inequality_and_stratification/1000/thumbnail.jp

What Google Teaches Us About The Child Rights Movement

Technology both helps and hinders what we know about human rights. Use of Google is of central importance to both the Sociology of Knowledge and the creation of internet literacy. In this study, different search engines are compared regarding content of “child rights” in the fifty United States. Findings include: importance of algorithmic loading of sites; number of hits may not reflect the importance or accuracy of a topic; different search engines produce different findings; and personalized searches result in different results. Personalization of searches in accordance to one’s previous search history may result in people being given information that reinforces their views, not challenge them. This means that people opposed to child rights may not be afforded the same information as people who have a search history supporting them. Because searches do not necessarily yield the same information about human rights, scholars and the public must be attentive to adequately assess the accurate or skewed nature of a keyword search

Youth Recommendations For Substance Use Education And Prevention

Vaping, marijuana, alcohol, and other drugs have become part of many young people’s lifestyles. This qualitative study examines substance use trends among youth, the effects of peer influence, and how schools and communities incorporate substance abuse education and prevention programs. Focus groups with high school students in New England reviewed causes of youth substance use and efficacy of traditional models of education and prevention. Youth regard most alcohol and drug education programs as ineffective. Education information does not seem to mitigate against the impact of peer pressure. Recommendations on prevention and about how students can better manage the impact of peer pressure surrounding substance use are provided

Discourses of globalisation, ideology and social justice

This chapter explores major discourses surrounding the problematic relationship between education, social justice and social justice policies, against the background of comparative education research. Social justice is an attempt to answer the following fundamental question: How can we contribute to the creation of a more equitable, respectful, and just society for everyone? The chapter analyses and critiques the overall interplay between education, social justice and the state. By focusing on the competing discourses of education and social justice, the chapter examines and evaluates critically both the reasons and outcomes of education reforms, policy change, with respect to social justice, and providing a more informed critique of the Western-driven paradigms of social justice and inequality

Discourses of globalisation, ideology and human rights

Globalisations, economic, cultural and social change over the last four decades have affected the nature of the discourse in human rights education. The chapter explores human rights education research and the problematic relationship between human rights education and the state, against the background of globalisation, and economic, political, social and cultural factors. Human rights education is an attempt to answer the following question: How can we contribute to the creation of a more equitable, respectful, peaceful and just society for everyone globally

The Technology Bias: What Google Teaches Us About Child Rights

Technology both helps and hinders what we know about human rights. Use of Google is of central importance to both the Sociology of Knowledge and the creation of internet literacy. In this study, different search engines are compared regarding content of “child rights” in the fifty United States. Findings include: importance of algorithmic loading of sites; number of hits may not reflect the importance or accuracy of a topic; different search engines produce different findings; and personalized searches result in different results. Personalization of searches in accordance to one’s previous search history may result in people being given information that reinforces their views, not challenge them. This means that people opposed to child rights may not be afforded the same information as people who have a search history supporting them. Because searches do not necessarily yield the same information about human rights, scholars and the public must be attentive to assess the accuracy and comprehensiveness of a keyword search

Sustainability at the Edge of Chaos: Its Limits and Possibilities in Public Health

This paper critically reviews the expanding literature on applications of sustainability to healthcare policy and planning. It argues that the concept has been overgeneralized and has become a buzzword masking disparate agendas. It ignores the insights of the newest generation of systems theory on complex systems on the ubiquity of far-from-equilibrium conditions. Yet, a central meaning often ascribed to sustainability is the level continuation of healthcare programs and their institutionalization. Sustainability is only coherent in health care when it is more narrowly delimited to involve public health and treated as only one of several evaluative criteria that informs not only the continuation of programs but more often their expansion or contraction as needs dynamically change