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Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 2, No. 2 Supplemental (Winter 1974)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

VOLUME II - NO. 2 SUPPLEMENT WINTER 1974

Issue Editor: Alan M. Cohen, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

• Editorial - pp 208
• Change and Program Evaluation in Social Organizations - ALAN M. COHEN - pp 210
• Behavioral Science Influence on Legislation: The Case of Delinquency Prevention - ALBERT S. ALISSI - pp 227
• The Demonstration Project as a Research and Change Strategy - LEONARD RUTMAN - pp 259
• The Three Evaluations of Social Welfare Programs - DEAN HARPER, HAROUTUM M. BABIGIAN - pp 271
• Evaluation Research and Evaluation: Scientific Social Reform Movement and Ideology - …

Behavioral Science Influences On Legislation: The Case Of Delinquency Prevention, Albert S. Alissi

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

This paper will discuss some of the issues and problems which arise in the field of delinquency prevention where there is over-riding public interest and concern and calls for action to prevent delinquency, but where the problem is elusive and where the variables are not easily isolated and controlled through experimental procedures. What, in fact, constitutes the body of knowledge in the field? What uses can be made of behavioral science materials where there has been little or no experimental successes, or data upon which to build action programs? What credence should be given to …

Evaluation Research And Evaluation: Scientific Social Reform Movement And Ideology, Michael Baizerman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The idea that human services programs should be evaluated is accepted by most practitioners and researchers. Discussion is about the technical aspects of this research and about how practitioners can be encouraged to utilize evaluative findings in their everyday practice. Emphasis is placed also on the organizational barriers to this utilization. These ideas and issues are found in a growing literature in the social sciences and, increasingly, in the even faster growing literatures in the professions and in the human services, including the social services, medical and health services, criminal justice and the like.

Here, evaluation research is discussed from …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 2, No. 2 (Winter 1974)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Letter to the Editor - pp 109
• A Holistic Perspective on Child Abuse and Its Prevention - David G. Gill - pp 110
• Towards a Radical Reassessment of Social Work Values - Shimon S. Gottschalk - pp 126
• Ethics Shock: Technology, Life Styles and Future Practice - Sonia Leib Abels, Paul Abels, Samuel A. Richmond - pp 140
• The Social-Psychology of Small Groups: Relevancy of Social Work Practice with Groups - Martha E. Gentry - pp 155
• The Myth of a Population Explosion in America: Implications for the Social Welfare Profession - Lillian T. Cochran, James M. …

A Holistic Perspective On Child Abuse And Its Prevention, David G. Gil

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In recent decades, child abuse has come to be considered a social problem of significant scope and has, therefore, attracted intense public and scholarly interest. Yet, in spite of efforts by scholars, professionals, government agencies, concerned individuals and organizations, and the media of public communications, misconceptions prevail concerning the nature, sources, and dynamics of this destructive phenomenon and concerning effective approaches to its primary prevention. Such conceptual shortcomings, and a related persistent failure to design effective policies and programs for the primary prevention of child abuse, seem to be due to a number of obstacles.

The Social Psychology Of Small Groups: Relevancy Of Social Work Practice With Groups, Martha E. Gentry

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Inclusion from the social sciences to broaden the knowledge base of social work is an accepted fact. In the professions' experience with group practice such reliance is not new, and extends at least to the efforts of Coyle who saw the usefulness of the small group field in social psychology as early as 1930. More recently, Hartford's book provides a text which bridges small group theory and social work practice with groups. An examination of diverse conceptualizations of group practice reveals differential reliance upon small group findings.

As the small group is increasingly chosen as the context and means for …

The Myth Of A Population Explosion In America: Implications For The Social Welfare Profession, Lillian T. Cochran, James M. O'Kane

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the past decade, the concern over a hypothetical "population explosion" has become an increasing preoccupation in growing segments of the American public. Terms such as "standing-room-only-world," "demographic catastrophe,' "future doomsday," etc. have become common, and the work of organizations such as Planned Parenthood, Zero Population Growth, and countless other agencies has centered around this supposed threat to continued human existence. Paul and Anne Ehrlich have set forth the general position on "overpopulation" stating: "The explosive growth of the human population is the most significant event in the past million millenia. . . . Mankind itself may stand on the …

Change And Program Evaluation In Social Organization, Alan M. Cohen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

There is an assumption of an inherent rationality in linking information on program effectiveness to program change. This article briefly discusses three typical evaluation studies and demonstration projects that fail to link information generated on the effectiveness of what people do, to program changes. Perceived inaccuracy of the information and the perceived threat of the information are emphasized as two reasons for this failure of program information to affect change in social organizations. A pre-planning functional information base is proposed as an important prerequisite in the sequence of creating a more receptive environment for organizational change.

It is often assumed …

The Demonstration Project As A Research & Change Strategy, Leonard Rutman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The demonstration project is becoming a major instrument for social planning. In sponsoring demonstration projects the overall goal is for small scale "pilot" programs which include some form of research to contribute to program change and policy-making (14, 16, 19, 21). It is generally expected that the lessons learned from demonstrations, through the rigours of scientific research, will somehow result in large scale adoption and major shifts in aims, styles and resources, and effectiveness of social service programs. Models or prototypes for future operational programs are tested to determine their effectiveness in meeting states objectives. For this reason, they are …

Anti-Poverty Policies And Evaluation: A Critique Of The Pluralist Conception Of Politics And Evaluation, Robert D. Herman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

The beginnings of U.S. federal evaluation research can, in descriptive historical terms, be located in McNamara's Department of Defense and the later requirement that all federal government agencies adopt a Planning, Programming, Budgeting System. While the formal PPB system was discontinued in 1971, the analytical or policy evaluation activities it required, still live on, especially in agencies dealing with human resource development and/or social welfare programs (Schick, 1973, Wholey, et al, 1970). Given the recent advocacy of increasing and improving federal evaluation efforts, I think it important to examine some of the assumptions and consequences …

An Evaluation Of The Case Against National Income Insurance, John B. Williamson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In an earlier paper I outlined a proposal for a national income insurance plan and discussed the strengths of the approach (Williamson,1974c). Income insurance is a special case of the negative income tax or more generally of the guaranteed income. Negative income tax proposals of any kind are open to a variety of criticisms from both the left and the right. The national income insurance plan is no exception. In the present paper an attempt is made to anticipate and deal with the major arguments against the plan. Many of these arguments are equally applicable to other guaranteed income proposals. …

Social Work, Sociology, And Social Diagnosis, Harris Chaiklin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

A new type of scholar-practitioner is needed; one who can contribute to both sociology and social work. To this point sociology has had the advantage because it has more of the needed people than social work; it just won't let them out of the closet. Social work has always been better than its own self-image. Lack of scholarship has hindered organizing and presenting the hard won knowledge which the field has acquired. The way to bring this scattered information together is by developing typologies which are refined in practice and common to both fields. Only …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 2, No. 1 (Fall 1974)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

No abstract provided.

Social Welfare As Coercive Social Control, Norman N. Goroff

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The key concepts which require some basic definitions in the title are "social welfare, social control and coercion". For the purposes of this paper, social welfare is defined as those public programs designed to provide an individual who is in financial need with the resources (financial and/or in kind) to exist in our society. Social control refers to the entire range of actions and pressures which are designed to lead the individual to function within society without threatening to disrupt the social order. These actions and pressures are embodied in sanctions for enforcing group norms as well as in formal …

Horatio Alger: The Persistence Of A Ghetto Social Welfare Institution, Carol Poll, John M. Goering

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Despite the riots, radical movements and demands for community controls of the 1960's, social scientists and social workers have noted the perserverance of many non-radical, traditional institutions in ghetto neighborhoods. Some of these institutions, like settlement houses, still advance the ideas of hard work, hoensty, competition, and individual achievement which are at the heart of the American dream. These institutions were often around long before the War on Poverty and appear likely to last long after its end. They, therefore, seem to be a reliable potential source of aid for many ghetto residents. The question at the heart of this …

The Sociology Of The Inner City--*Functionality For Practice, Ivor J. Echols

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Many aspects of the future seem imponderable, in the sense that they are impossible of reckoning, and into this category falls the plight of cities. That portion of the cities which is marked by physical blight, continuing property and human deterioration, and myriads of problems of survival-the so-called "inner city" is even more elusive of future prediction and remedy. Theoretician and practitioner alike appear to be enmeshed in an endless web of conceptual gossamer, and palliative ministrations to a relative few targets within their purview.

The intent of this paper, however, is not to castigate but rather to challenge the …

Responses To Social Services Among The Urban Unemployed, William W. Philliber

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In an urban environment the individual is unable to function independent of other people. To fill even basic needs for food, shelter, and clothing, he must successfully become a part of the social system. To assist people in obtaining these, programs have developed in the areas of employment, housing, health, and welfare as well as other areas related to man's life in Ln urbah environment. The provision of these programs does not automatically insure that needs will be met. The individual still must make a positive response before a service can be delivered. A review of the literature shows that …

New Premises For Planning In Appalachia, Richard A. Ball

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The Appalachian Region, particularly Southern Appalachia, has lived through several hundred years of frustration related to its history and geography. The history of the area has become better known during recent years, and it is a history of documented exploitation and socioeconomic disillusionment, a "biography of a depressed area" (Caudill, 1962). Geographically, the region has been regarded essentially as a barrier between the settled East and the fertile lands of the West, a place of rugged terrain and harsh conditions of life. This history and geography have played a large part in the problems which now afflict region and which …

The Social Welfare Workers Movement: A Case Study Of New Left Thought In Practice, Stanley Wenocur

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

During the upheavals of the 1960's many human service professions and academic disciplines (e.g. psychology, sociology, law, medicine, etc.) underwent severe criticisms of their goals and methodologies, generated both from within and without. In social work one such critique came from the Social Welfare Workers Movement (SWWM), born out of protest-oriented activities at the National Conference on Social Welfare in new York City, 1969. Although SWWM dissipated after about two years, interest in radical social work is still very much alive today. The intent of this paper, then, is to record and analyze the career of the Social Welfare Workers …

Protective Services: Coercive Social Control Or Mutual Liberation, Alfred J. Fortin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

The area of protective services for children has always been a difficult one for social work. Protective casework has, and is now, both praised and condemned simultaneously from different elements of the community. The stakes in the protective field are usually high and players are subject to various episodes of the "emotional plague" as Wilhelm Reich would have called it. People in protective work exercise their role as worker in a variety of ways and these 'styles' range from being police-like and oppressive to radical and promoting social change. It is characteristic of this work …

The Convergence Of The Interactionist And Behavioral Approaches To Deviance, Stuart A. Kirk, Eileen D. Gambrill

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper compares two theoretical perspectives on deviance, the behavioral and interactionist. Although these two perspectives arise from separate disciplines and intellectual traditions, we will argue that their approaches to the study of deviance in general and to mental illness in particular share many basic similarities, as well as some important differences, and that an analysis of each helps us understand the limitations and strengths of the other.

The behavioral and interactionist perspectives are chosen for examination for three reasons. First, it is our opinion that these two theoretical approaches represent the most creative recent work by sociologists and psychologists …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 3, No. 1 (September 1974)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Editorial, pp 2
• The Social Welfare Workers Movement: A Case Study of New Left Thought in Practice - STANLEY WENOCUR, pp 3
• Toward A More Adequate Concept of "Organization" in Social Work Practice - BUFORD E. FARRIS, pp 21
• The Interorganizational Relationships of a Public Welfare Agency - BURTON GUMMER, pp 33
• The Convergence of the Interactionist and Behavioral Approaches to Deviance - STUART A. KIRK, EILEEN D. GAMBRILL, pp 47
• Suicide .... Causation, Indicators and Interventions - FLORENCE W. KASLOW, pp 59
• Protective Services: Coercive Social Control or Mutual Liberation - ALFRED J. FORTIN, pp 81 …

Toward A More Adequate Concept Of "Organization" In Social Work Practice Theory, Buford E. Farris

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A generic model of social work practice requires the formulation of frameworks that indicate what is meant by intervention at the "organizational" level. Usually "organization" is put at some midpoint in a hierarchy of social levels (such as individual, small group, organization, local community, society). However, when one looks at the various social work practice frameworks, there is very little development of knowledge about the process of intervention at this mid-level. Since the "macro" levels of community and society can probably be best conceptualized as "inter-organizational" arenas, social work practice knowledge for these levels is also hindered. This article intends …

The Interorganizational Relationships Of A Public Welfare Agency, Burton Gummer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The American social welfare field is best characterized as a highly decentralized sphere of activity in which autonomous organizations define and pursue their goals in a fairly independent fashion. The complex nature of modern social problems, however, requires concerted action by a variety of organizations if effective solutions are to be developed. This conflict between the structural nature of the welfare field and the demands of the problems to be addressed has meant that social welfare planners have had to be concerned with the conditions affecting the willingness of independent organizations to engage in cooperative activities with each other. The …

Toward Partisan Politics In A Professional Association: Utility Of The Candidates Poll, L. K. Northwood, Howard Crockett

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The purpose of this paper is to describe the initial efforts of one local chapter, The Puget Sound Chapter; to engage in partisan politics by the conduct of a poll of candidates for election to the Washington State Legislature in 1974. Properly speaking, the Chapter endorsed no candidates, merely rated them from "weak" to "outstanding" on their agreement with NASW policies on relevant programs and their social welfare attitudes. Thus, it is a mild form of partisan politics that will be considered.

The paper will analyze the social and organizational context in which the candidates' poll occurred, and then report …

Evaluating A Pilot Social Service Project For Widows: A Chronicle Of Research Problems, S. Roxanne Hiltz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The decade of the 70's has seen the appearance of a number of publications in the area of "evaluation research", the effort to systematically apply social science research methods to the evaluation of action programs set up for the purpose of helping to solve social problems. Evaluation research is thus one area in which social scientists can be of direct aid in setting public policy about social welfare services.

An excellent primer on the problems that are likely to arise in the course of an evaluation effort and the "conventional wisdom" that has been developed thus far is Carol Weiss' …

Interorganizational Conflict: The Case Of Police Youth Bureaus And The Juvenile Court, C. David Hollister, Joe Hudson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Police departments, juvenile courts, training schools, and a variety of welfare organizations together constitute the network of agencies formally instituted to deal with juvenile deviance.I Because each of the organizations has an interest in reducing deviance, it is sometimes assumed that they share the same goals and work closely and cooperatively with each other. The purpose of this paper is to report on an exploratory study of inter-organizational relations at one link in this network: relations between police youth bureaus and the juvenile court.

A Serendipitous Relationship Between Theory Modification And A Study Of Staff Development, Patricia A. Brown

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

There are instances in which the guiding impetus to a study is a very practical problem, the answers to which are expected to have immediate applicability. Although the practical purpose is accomplished, at the study's end comes the recognition that perhaps the most important contribution of the investigation had been the uncovering of theoretical implications.

The above serendipitous process is applicable to the following report of a limited study of staff development in a new youth serving agency. The study is presented in detail so that the main elements associated with the validation and elaboration of a conceptualization of organizational …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 1, No. 4 (Summer 1974)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Table of Contents

• Editorial Page - 177
• A Serendipitous Relationship Between Theory Modification and a Study of Staff Development. - Patricia A. Brown - Page 179
• Recipients Attitudes Toward Welfare - Kirk W. Elifson, William S. Little, William Chamberlain - Page 186
• Social Work Practice and the Social Context - Jeffry Galper - Page 199
• Interorganizational Conflicts: The Case of Police Youth Bureaus and the Juvenile Court - David C. Hollister, Joe Hudson - Page 206
• Evaluating a Pilot Social Service Project for Widows: A Chronicle of Research Problems - S. Roxanne Hiltz - Page 217
• Electives and Undergraduate Social …

Recipients' Attitudes Toward Welfare, Kirk W. Elifson, William S. Little, William Chamberlain

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

While the general plight of welfare recipients has long been recognized, little or nothing to date has been ascertained concerning their views toward the system that largely determines their lives. Many recipients find themselves manipulated by a less than personalized bureaucracy but few researchers have sought to examine the experiences and attitudes of these recipients toward that system. Given the recent figures which indicate a "welfare explosion" (Piven and Cloward, 1971), and the vast expenditures for public assistance programs (Skolnick and Dales, 1969:5), the lack of systematic empirical research in this area is disconcerting. Such information should be of considerable …