Current Issue  │ Table of Contents (PDF)  │  Article Summaries (PDF)  │ Editorial (PDF)

Topics in this issue include:

• Public policy and effect

• Intervention models and service delivery

• Child welfare

• Practice issues and social change

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New Articles With Free Access

Prevalence and Patterns of Earned Income Tax Credit Use Among Eligible Tax-Filing Families: A Panel Study, 1999–2005
by Richard K. Caputo
Use of the EITC is increasingly important for eligible individuals and families in light of changes to public policies and welfare programs, such as with PRWORA and TANF. Relying on National Longitudinal Survey data over a 7-year study period, this study shows that about one third of those in their prime working years are likely to be classified as working poor. Despite that striking percentage, low-income, prime-age working adults have low EITC take-up rates (less than 20% of EITC-eligible families filed for the credit) despite federal, state, and private outreach efforts. This was found to be the case even for groups considered less economically vulnerable or in need of social protections, such as men in general and married persons. Additional direct practice, advocacy, and policy goals aimed at increasing the take-up rate for the EITC are identified. Social workers and other helping professionals would do well by their working-poor clientele to be knowledgeable about the EITC program, inquire about tax-filing status as part of routine data collection, and encourage those EITC-eligible nonfilers to file.
Abstract │ Article PDF (free to registered users)

The Effect of Privatization on Advocacy: Social Work State-Level Advocacy With the Executive Branch
by Joe Squillace
Contracting out services and administration has fundamentally changed the relationship between the clients and consumers of social programs and the state governmental entities responsible for the oversight of those services. The author argues that privatization can result in a fragmented system of separate data records, separate fiscal and program accountability systems, and multiple sets of rules according to eligibility categories. This article offers an exploration of ways social workers can enlist the executive branch as allies in advocacy efforts, a new classification of activities targeted to the executive branch, tactical strategies for advocacy, and a model to become engaged in effective state administrative practice. The key to useful advocacy practice with the appropriate state department or executive officer is matching an issue/cause with relevant action and context.
Abstract │ Article PDF (free to registered users)

Postincarceration Policies for Those With Criminal Drug Convictions: A National Policy Review
by Lena M. Lundgren, Marah A. Curtis, & Catherine Oettinger
Minority populations are disproportionately affected by high incarceration rates, criminal convictions, and sentencing disparities; the authors assert that social workers need to be concerned with both the racial and ethnic disparities in drug criminality and the incarceration rate for drug-related offences. A systematic review of existing federal, state, and local government policies that mandate consequences post incarceration for individuals with various drug convictions is provided. This review utilizes a human capital framework to understand the consequences of these policies as they pertain to employment, education, housing, public assistance, and voting opportunities. It is critical for social workers to understand the limits these clients face with respect to establishing stable, legal, individual, or family economy and considering the development of their human capital (i.e., educational or employment skills).
Abstract │ Article PDF (free to registered users)

Housed But Homeless? Negotiating Everyday Life in a Shared Housing Program
by Uzo Anucha
This study focuses on individuals with extensive histories of homelessness who describe a continuum of unstable living situations, suggesting that the typical pattern of homelessness involves episodic rather than chronic homelessness. Their difficult physical environments while in the program frequently sabotaged their efforts to improve their employability through training or education, and hampered their efforts to work on personal vulnerabilities such as addictions. Findings show that even when employed, participants had jobs that were temporary, insecure, poorly paid, and without benefits, all of which increased housing instability. Participants were so precariously situated on the economic ladder that small conflicts often resulted in disastrous consequences. Having communication and interpersonal skills or ongoing relationships with family and friends, however, assisted in retaining program housing. Additionally, these findings provide supporting evidence for the development of policy changes. Examples are subsidized, self-contained units; eviction prevention programs; payment plan options; and coordinated discharge planning.
Abstract │ Article PDF (free to registered users)

Critical Theory: Pathway From Dichotomous to Integrated Social Work Practice
by Lorraine Moya Salas, Soma Sen, & Elizabeth A. Segal
Through practice based on critical theory, social work is most effective when the false dichotomy between working with individuals and working toward social change is reconciled and when social justice is addressed at all levels of practice. The authors examine the conceptual framework of critical theory as an ideological foundation and offer guidelines to implementing theory concepts in social work practice. This integration begins with a commitment to recognizing how the personal and political are connected and consequently how social care is employed toward the elimination of oppression. To engage in critical practice, practitioners must consider the following interrelated factors: historical and cultural context, power distribution, self-reflection, nonjudgmental inquiry, values, and action. Also key to critical social work practice is the need to bring similarly oppressed people together so that they can critically reflect on their experiences and collectively engage in efforts to change burdensome conditions.
Abstract │ Article PDF (free to registered users)

Justifying Sex: The Place of Women’s Sexuality on a Social Justice Agenda
by Laina Y. Bay-Cheng
Within popular and professional discourses, consideration of women’s sexuality often centers on its dangers and difficulties (e.g., unintended pregnancy, infection, coercion and objectification, and sexual dysfunction). Such rhetoric is so persistent that sexuality is often perceived as inherently risky and dangerous. The author challenges this equation by arguing that women’s sexual vulnerability is attributable to social injustice and inequality on the basis of gender, heteronormativity, class, and race, rather than sexuality itself. The emerging interdisciplinary movement toward positive sexuality is reviewed with particular attention to the ways in which social work is especially well suited to assume a social justice orientation to women’s sexuality. Practitioners and advocates are called upon to participate directly in improving the conditions of women’s lives by lobbying for increased, equal access to high-quality sexual health information and services; supporting programs and policies that have been empirically proven to promote sexual responsibility and well-being; and helping families, schools, and agencies reduce their reliance on gender norms.
Abstract │ Article PDF (free to registered users)

Preview the Next Issue (April–June 2010; Vol. 91, No. 2)
The Summer 2010 issue of Families in Society will highlight spirituality in social work, experiential learning, child welfare and foster care, family violence, maternal economic sufficiency, and family functioning.

• Read the abstracts for the upcoming articles. 

View Our New Book Reviews Online
Families in Society has expanded its reviews of publications written for social workers and other professionals in the fields of human services, psychology, behavioral health, and medical care.

Dozens of newly published and archive reviews are available for free to registered users.
Visit FamiliesInSociety.org/BookReviews.asp.

• Bipolar Disorder: A Family-Focused Treatment Approach
  by David J. Miklowitz
  New York: The Guilford Press, 2008
  
  Book review by Felix O. Chima
  Review Info
   
• Clinical Handbook of Schizophrenia
  edited by Kim T. Mueser & Dilip V. Jeste
  New York: The Guilford Press, 2008
  
  Book review by Giesela Grumbach
  Review Info
   
• Art, Creativity and Imagination in Social Work Practice
  edited by Prue Chamberlaine & Martin Smith
  Abington, UK: Routledge, 2008
  
  Student book review by Jessica McCallister
  Review Info
   
• Lifting Our Voices: The Journeys into Family Caregiving of Professional Social Workers;
  by Joyce O. Beckett
  New York: Columbia University Press, 2008
  
  Social Work Practice with African-American Families: An Intergenerational Perspective
  edited by Cheryl Waites
  New York: Routledge, 2008
  
  Collective book review by Needha Boutte-Queen
  Review Info
   

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