This book studies welfare systems in Europe and beyond from the standpoint of women in vulnerable positions in society. These systems are under major transformations with new models of service delivery and management, austerity measures, requirements for cost-effectiveness, marketization, and the prioritization of services. Divided into three parts: Welfare service systems (not) responding to vulnerable situations of women Women's encounters with the welfare service system Contradictions of informal support this book considers the experiences and encounters with the service system of women in poverty, homeless women, women with substance use problems, women sentenced of crime, girls and young women in care, and refugees and asylum-seeking women. Drawing upon research and critical discussions from Finland, Canada, Israel, Slovenia, Spain and the UK, this book provides new empirical findings and critical insights, and a valuable resource for the academics and students in social work, social policy, sociology and gender studies, but also for policy makers and professionals in social and health care.

Tracing the origin of work with the 'impotent poor' under the Poor Laws, to social workers' current responsibilities towards vulnerable people, this book introduces the reader to the way in which the identification of particular social problems at the end of the nineteenth century led to the emergence of a wide range of separate occupational groups and voluntary workers, which were sometimes, but increasingly, referred to as social workers. Using an extended single chronological historical narrative and analysis, which draws heavily on original archival sources and contemporary literature, it addresses the changes which took place as part of the welfare state and the identification of common roles and responsibilities by social workers, which led to the formation of the British Association of Social Workers in 1970. The expansion of roles and responsibilities in social services departments and voluntary societies is analysed, and their significance for the development of social work is evaluated. By highlighting the changes and continuities in these roles and responsibilities, this book will be of interest to all academics, students, and practitioners working within social work, who wish to know more about the origins of their discipline and the current state of the profession today.

Psychosocial Impact of Polygamy in the Middle East is the first to deal with polygamy in the Middle East in a comprehensive way. This book fills a gap in the literature by addressing the question of the psychosocial impact of polygamy on all members of polygamous families by offering a new way of examining family structure, such as father-mother, father-children, mother-children relationships, and the relationships between offspring from different mothers. It introduces a model for intervention with polygamous families for scholars and practitioners. This book also explores Islam s role in polygamy as well as the social andeconomic consequences of the phenomena."

The term 'sensitive research' is applied to a wide range of issues and settings. It is used to denote projects that may involve risk to people, stigmatising topics, and/or require a degree of sensitivity on behalf of the researcher. Rather than take the notion of 'sensitive research' for granted, this collection unpacks and challenges what the term means. This book is a collective endeavour to reflect on research practices around 'sensitive research', providing in-depth explorations about what this label means to different researchers, how it is done - including the need to be sensitive as a researcher - and what impacts this has on methods and knowledge creation. The book includes chapters from researchers who have explored a diverse range of research topics, including sex and sexuality, death, abortion, and learning disabilities, from several disciplinary perspectives, including sociology, anthropology, health services research and interdisciplinary work. The researchers included here collectively argue that current approaches fail to adequately account for the complex mix of emotions, experiences, and ethical dilemmas at the heart of many 'sensitive' research encounters. Overall, this book moves the field of 'sensitive research' beyond the genericity of this label, showing ways in which researchers have in practice addressed the methodological threats that are triggered when we uncritically embark on 'sensitive research'. The chapters in this book were originally published in the International Journal of Social Research Methodology and the journal Mortality.

Preventing Harmful Behaviour in Online Communities explores the ethics and logistics of censoring problematic communications online that might encourage a person to engage in harmful behaviour. Using an approach based on theories of digital rhetoric and close primary source analysis, Zoe Alderton draws on group dynamics research in relation to the way in which some online communities foster negative and destructive ideas, encouraging community members to engage in practices including self-harm, disordered eating, and suicide. This book offers insight into the dangerous gap between the clinical community and caregivers versus the pro-anorexia and pro-self-harm communities - allowing caregivers or medical professionals to understand hidden online communities young people in their care may be part of. It delves into the often-unanticipated needs of those who band together to resist the healthcare community, suggesting practical ways to address their concerns and encourage healing. Chapters investigate the alarming ease with which ideas of self-harm can infect people through personal contact, community unease, or even fiction and song and the potential of the internet to transmit self-harmful ideas across countries and even periods of time. The book also outlines the real nature of harm-based communities online, examining both their appeal and dangers, while also examining self-censorship and intervention methods for dealing with harmful content online. Rather than pointing to punishment or censorship as best practice, the book offers constructive guidelines that outline a more holistic approach based on the validity of expressing negative mood and the creation of safe peer support networks, making it ideal reading for professionals protecting vulnerable people, as well as students and academics in psychology, mental health, and social care.

Provides an in-depth understanding of how certain features of ASD may provide the context of vulnerability to engaging in a number of types of offending behaviours Written by a world-leading expert in the field of violent crime and its relationship to ASD Evidence-based, practical guide to working with Suspects, Defendants and Offenders with Autism, making it suitable for both researchers and professionals across Psychology and Legal domains

Child Abuse and Neglect examines the latest research on this important topic, discussing what it entails, how to recognize it, and how to report it. The book begins with an overview of child maltreatment including its history, a summary of the research, and the risk factors, before exploring issues of mandated reporting. It then considers different forms of maltreatment - physical abuse, neglect, psychological maltreatment, sexual abuse, fetal abuse, and Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome. The authors discuss incidence estimates and consequences, as well as resiliency, for each type of maltreatment, and then review legal issues including forensic interviewing. The book concludes by providing an overview of what happens to a child after a report is filed along with suggestions for preventing child maltreatment. This edition has been thoroughly updated throughout to cover the latest theory and research. Referencing the DSM-V, the book also features updated coverage of state and federal laws to reflect new legislation, and additional case studies covering real-world events such as the sexual abuse scandals within USA Gymnastics, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Written with students in mind, the book features a wealth of engaging learning tools throughout, including: Theory Highlight boxes, Focus on Research boxes, Case Examples, Legal Examples, Focus on Law boxes, Discussion Questions, and Key Terms. It will be essential reading for all students taking courses on child abuse, child maltreatment, family violence, or sexual and intimate violence taught in psychology, human development, education, criminal justice, social work, sociology, women's studies, and nursing. This book will also be an invaluable resource to workers who are mandated reporters of child maltreatment and/or anyone interested in the problem. This book is based on the legal system and the Child Protection System in the United States of America. It is accompanied by a set of online instructor resources.

Provides a rich synthesis of research and theory of nascent and emergent innovative work of social suffering through rich empirical examination of changing welfare structures, regimes and technologies. Synthesises, critiques and expands the boundaries of existing research which has been undertaken from a number of different disciplinary and international perspectives and examines in rich empirical analysis its implications for specific subjectivities. Fills an existing gap within the international literature through focusing upon the Australian case and empirically demonstrate the significance of Australia to identifying and understanding global trends.

The Routledge Handbook of Social Work and Addictive Behaviors is a definitive resource about addictive behaviors, emphasizing substance misuse, gambling, and problematic technology use. Contents address their prevalence in various communities and populations globally, theories related to their origins and etiology, and what is currently known about effective intervention strategies, education, and research. Social work's biopsychosocial, lifespan, and person-in-environment perspectives underpin the book contents which are applicable to a wide range of professional and social science disciplines. Contents are divided into five sections: The scope and nature of addictive behavior and related problems Addictive behavior across the lifespan and specific populations Interventions to prevent and address addictive behavior and related problems Issues frequently co-occurring with addictive behavior Moving forward This handbook provides students, practitioners, and scholars with a strong focus on cutting-edge high-quality research. With contributions from a global interdisciplinary team of leading scholars, this handbook is relevant to readers from social work, public health, psychology, education, sociology, criminal justice, medicine, nursing, human services, and health professions.

Introduces social practitioners - a broad definition for those working in the social field, including social workers, community development workers, organisational change facilitators, social, ecological, cultural and political activists - to a phenomenological tradition of social practice. Presents a philosophical, personal and practical book on how to live and work in the social field with a new approach to observation, aliveness and complexity. Relevant to all courses on complexity in social work and human services. Of interest to all social workers, development and social practitioners, community workers, activists, and organizational development facilitators.

It's a startling reality that more American children are victims-and perpetrators-of violence than those of any other developed country. Yet unlike the other nations, the United States has yet to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Compelling, readable, and interdisciplinary, "A Child's Right to a Healthy Environment" provides an abundance of skilled observation, important findings, and keen insights to place children's well-being in the vanguard of human rights concerns, both in the United States and globally.

Within this volume, authors examine the impediments to the crucial goals of justice, safety, dignity, well-being, and meaning in children's lives, factors as varied as socioeconomic stressors, alienated, disengaged parents, and corrosive moral lessons from the media. The complex role of religious institutions in promoting and, in many cases, curtailing children's rights is analyzed, as are international efforts by advocates and policymakers to address major threats to children's development, including: War and natural disasters.Environmental toxins (e.g., malaria and lead poisoning).The child obesity epidemic.Gun violence.Child slavery and trafficking.Toxic elements in contemporary culture.

"A Child's Right to a Healthy Environment" is a powerful call to action for researchers and professionals in developmental, clinical child, school, and educational psychology as well as psychiatry, pediatrics, social work, general and special education, sociology, and other fields tasked with improving children's lives.

This book ties restorative justice into the exercise of patriarchal power. It is focused on the individual narratives of 15 girls and young women who have participated in a victim-offender restorative justice (RJ) conference and the perspectives of youth justice practitioners. Gender, Power and Restorative Justice expands feminist engagement with RJ by focusing critical attention on the importance of the social construction of gender, the exercise of power, shame, stigma, muting and resistance to girls' experiences of RJ conferencing. Drawing upon recent developments to the sociology of stigma and feminist perspectives on shame, the book contends that RJ conferencing can produce harmful implications for girls and young women who participate. Ultimately it is argued that anti-carceral, social policy alternatives, underpinned by feminist praxis, should replace a youth justice jurisprudence for girls. This book will be of particular use and interest to those studying modules on criminology, youth justice, criminal justice and social work courses.

This text is intended to help social work practitioners move beyond both these often-accepted constructions of sexuality and the range of methods that are available to social workers in their clinical practice. Various themes are apparent throughout each of the chapters in this volume: the range of sexual experience and expression that exists across individuals; a recognition of our society's responses to expressions of sexuality, including the social, attitudinal, and cultural barriers that inhibit the expression of healthy sexuality and that constrain our approaches to assisting individuals with their recovery from trauma; the need to consistently and painstakingly examine our own assumptions relating to sexuality in order to be more effective with our clients; and the delicate balance that is often required when working with clients around issues of sexuality in the context of institutions, community, and societal structures. "

Participatory Design and Social Transformation introduces theories and methodologies for using image-oriented narratives as modes of inquiry and proposition toward greater justice and equity for society and the environment. Participatory artistic- and design-based research encounters - being, making, and learning with people, things, and situations - are explored through practices that utilize image-oriented and cinematic narratives. Collaborative alliances are invited to consider aesthetics, visuality, attunement, reflection, reciprocity, and care as a means for transdisciplinary approaches that foster generative and ethically responsible conditions toward collective liberation. The design of spectacles is proposed as a way for collective movements to affectively contribute to positive systemic changes from the ground up. In this way, Participatory Design and Social Transformation bridges contemporary advances in design theory and practice with media and art theory, the human and social sciences, and a pedagogy of interdependence. Participatory Design and Social Transformation will be of great interest to both professional and academic communities, providing resources for researchers, artists, designers, activists, students, educators, and leaders engaged with initiatives for transformation.

Examines the issue of juvenile life without parole (LWOP) sentences in its entirety and calls attention to both sides of the debate. Suitable for scholars and practitioners interested in a balanced approach to the impact of important Supreme Court decisions and the controversy related to review and resentencing of juvenile lifers. The first book to feature in-depth interviews with juvenile lifers as well as other involved parties, such as prosecutors, politicians, advocates, and victims and their families.

Examines the issue of juvenile life without parole (LWOP) sentences in its entirety and calls attention to both sides of the debate. Suitable for scholars and practitioners interested in a balanced approach to the impact of important Supreme Court decisions and the controversy related to review and resentencing of juvenile lifers. The first book to feature in-depth interviews with juvenile lifers as well as other involved parties, such as prosecutors, politicians, advocates, and victims and their families.

Offers approaches and strategies for combating radicalisation and extremism. The first book to explore cultural identity, acculturation and perceived discrimination of Muslim youth across Western countries in relation to social work. An interdisciplinary resource for those researching and working in social work, psychology, public health, psychiatry, sociology, political science and community development.

The Little Book of Reflective Practice is bursting with big ideas which will encourage you to be curious, reflective and courageous in your professional learning journey. It introduces the key reflective theories alongside case studies from educators to show how these can be applied to improve practice. The journey from being to thriving is set out in several chapters each providing different themes which will encourage you to capture your reflections, record your learning and development and apply theories of reflection to your professional practice. Full of practical guidance, activities and questions to prompt reflective thinking, the chapters cover: getting started how to write reflectively creating spaces to be reflective using reflective practice to set targets for your learning and professional development Spaces for capturing your reflective thoughts and reflective activities are provided througout, alongside sections where you may wish to stop and engage in deeper thinking. This book will be invaluable reading for early years practitioners, tutors and early years students on level 3 courses and Foundation Degrees.

The contributors to this book present case studies of elder care in China and India, and draw comparisons between the two - illuminating some of the key issues facing the two largest Asian countries as they develop rapidly. Caring for the elderly is a major challenge for all countries, and one which is of acute concern for rapidly developing economies. Development tends to run counter to long-established cultural norms of family-based caring and filial piety, even as it also tends to lead to longer life expectancy. Taking a range of methodological and conceptual approaches to understanding these challenges, the contributors present a multifaceted understanding of elder care issues in both India and China. They focus in particular on caregiving within families and at care homes - and the impacts these have on quality of life and the experience of caregiving for both caregivers and the aged themselves. An invaluable collection for scholars and students of gerontology and aging in Asia, that will also be of great interest to scholars with a broader interest in global trends in caregiving.

Integrating interdisciplinary and cross-cultural analysis, this volume advances our understanding of sexual violence in intimacy through the development of more nuanced and evidence-based conceptual frameworks. Sexual violence in intimacy is a global pandemic that causes individual physical and emotional harm as well as wider social suffering. It is also legal and culturally condoned in much of the world. Bringing together international and interdisciplinary research, the book explores marital rape as individual suffering that is best understood in cultural and institutional context. Gendered narratives and large-scale surveys from India, Ghana and Africa Diasporas, Pacific Islands, Denmark, New Zealand, the United States, and beyond illuminate cross-cultural differences and commonalities. Methodological debates concerning etic and emic approaches and de-colonial challenges are addressed. Finally, a range of policy and intervention approaches-including art, state rhetoric, health care, and criminal justice-are explored. This book provides much needed scholarship to guide policymakers, practitioners, and activists as well as for researchers studying gender-based violence, marriage, and kinship, and the legal and public health concerns of women globally. It will be relevant for upper-level students and scholars in anthropology, sociology, psychology, women's studies, social work and public and global health.

What is charity? How does it operate, who does it benefit and what should we expect it to do? This important book helps to tackle the most common misunderstandings and misconceptions of charitable activity in contemporary British society, especially insofar as these affect the thinking of politicians and policymakers. The authors present and discuss over a dozen studies, including public attitudes to giving, large datasets on the geography and funding patterns of third sector organisations, and interviews with a wide range of donors, charity leaders, fundraisers and philanthropy advisers. This data enables them to explore the logic of charity in terms of the distribution of resources across causes and communities in the UK, and the processes behind philanthropic decision-making, to reveal a picture of charitable activity at odds with widespread assumptions.

This handbook presents an overview of studies on the relationship of active ageing and quality of life. It addresses the new challenges of ageing from the paradigm of positive ageing (active, healthy and successful) for a better quality of life. It provides theoretical perspectives and empirical studies, including scientific knowledge as well as practical experiences about the good ageing and the quality of later life around the world, in order to respond to the challenges of an aged population. The handbook is structured in 4 sections covering theoretical and conceptual perspectives, social policy issues and research agenda, methods, measurement instrument-scales and evaluations, and lastly application studies including domains and geographical contexts. Chapter 5 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This dynamic text on human behavior takes a unique international perspective to introduce students to the concepts of large social systems and development. Social workers now practice in an increasingly global context for reasons ranging from migration to international adoptions to developments in technology. Understanding these global connections is essential to social workers today. Human Behavior in a Just World emphasizes the "common human condition" between people, and encourages students to see the powerful connections between environmental conditions and behavior. The authors address key elements of human behavior through a global lens, and discuss powerful global policy instruments and resources, such as the United Nations. Engaging North American and global case studies illustrate the theories in practice.

Kinship foster care involves placing children who cannot live at home in foster care with other members of their family or close network. This book sheds light on different aspects of kinship care development and practice. Using a 20-year longitudinal research study from Norway, this book shows the historical development of kinship care in Norway, research on kinship care, and how family life and relations are negotiated and lived in the span between private and public sphere. It includes the perspectives of the children, their parents and their relatives who have functioned as foster parents. Recognising that kinship care is complex, and needs to be understood and studied from different perspectives, the book describes, analyses and discusses a number of subjects: kinship care in a child welfare historical context, families who are part of kinship care and their perspectives, the formal frameworks around kinship care, and research approaches which have dominated research into kinship care. This book will be of interest to all scholars, students and professionals working in social work and child welfare more broadly, both in the Nordic countries and in a wider international context.

The families of death row inmates are rarely considered in public discourse regarding the death penalty. They have largely been forgotten, and their pain has not been acknowledged by the rest of society. These families experience a unique grief process as they are confronted with the loss of their loved one to death row and brace themselves for the possibility of an execution. Death row families are disenfranchised from their grief by the surrounding community, and their; mental health needs exacerbated as they struggle in isolation with the ambiguous loss that comes with the fear that the state will kill their loved one. Grief, Loss, and Treatment for Death Row Families describes the grief that families experience from the time of their loved one's arrest through his or her execution. In each chapter, Sandra Joy guides the reader through the grief process experienced by the families, offering clinical interventions that can be used by mental health professionals who are given the opportunity to work with these families at various stages of their grief. The author conducted over seventy qualitative interviews with family members from Delaware who either currently have a loved one on death row or have survived the execution of their loved one. Delaware was chosen because though it has a relatively small death row, it is ranked third in the nation with its rate of per capita executions. This book provides an in-depth awareness of the grieving process of death row families, as well as ways that professionals can intervene to assist them in healing. With increased awareness and effective clinical treatment, we can ensure that the families of death row inmates are forgotten no more.