Geography of Drug Markets and Child Maltreatment: How Practice Informs Research

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By Bridget Freisthler, Ph.D. and Nancy J. Williams, MSW

Often, the research carried out on social welfare problems does not seem to affect what actually takes place in practice.  Research seems inaccessible to practitioners; studies are designed and findings interpreted without input from those working in the field. In the case of this study, however, we have been able to use recent research findings combined with practice experience to help understand the findings and suggest clear and practical recommendations for the field.

The Study and Its Findings
The study was designed to enhance understanding of how illicit drug markets in neighborhoods place children at risk for being abused or neglected.  We did this by examining drug markets across neighborhoods and over time. We found that referrals for child maltreatment investigations were less likely to occur in places where current drug market activity (as measured by drug possessions and drug sales) was present.  However, when we looked at drug sales in the past year for both the neighborhood and nearby neighborhoods, we did find more referrals for child maltreatment.  Neighborhoods with more drug possessions and drug sales during the study period had higher numbers of substantiated cases of child maltreatment in the months following.  Neighborhoods with more cases of drug possession also had more cases in which children were placed into foster care.  We hypothesized that the time lag between drug sales and child maltreatment referrals may: (1) indicate that the surveillance systems designed to protect children may not be very responsive to changing neighborhood conditions or (2) show that it takes time for drug sales to reach their users and for the detrimental effects of the drug use to appear.

Nancy’s Practice Example

Late one afternoon, I received an immediate response “Doe referral.” Typical of these types of referrals, it only referenced an address and a statement that a woman was residing in a tool shed with a newborn child. With such little information, I was left to depend upon my knowledge of the neighborhood area and my assessment skills. Through my ongoing collaboration with local community agencies and the local police officers, I was acutely aware that the area had been experiencing a surge in crack-cocaine sales and use.

The main house was not occupied, however, in the backyard I observed a baby blanket hanging from a clothes line. I spoke with an African American male who led me to an African American woman and an infant lying down on a dust-covered couch in a poorly ventilated shed.  I attempted to engage the woman in conversation; however, her behavior appeared erratic and her statements were evasive, contradictory, and illogical. During this time, she wouldn’t let me examine the infant.  When I pressed her, the woman suddenly picked up the infant and handed him to the same man I had spoken to before. She attempted to block me from leaving the yard with him.  I eventually caught up with the man and the infant three blocks away. During this time, the woman disappeared.

The man appeared more coherent and was cooperative.  He confirmed that the infant had been residing in the shed with the woman I had spoken to, who was the mother.  A quick check of the infant showed signs of severe physical neglect including thin appearance, fungal infection in the mouth, cradle cap, dirty appearance, and a combination of scaring and extensive active diaper rash. The child also presented symptoms similar to crack-exposed newborn infants, including tremors, high-pitched cry, and being difficult to console.  The child’s condition and circumstances in the neighborhood led me to have the child immediately assessed, including toxicological screening at a children’s hospital.

My initial assessment was confirmed. The infant tested positive for metabolites associated with crack-cocaine. He was taken into custody .While the mother’s extended family was found, the mother was never located again. This real example shows how knowledge of drug activity in a neighborhood can alert a caseworker to assess for specific effects related to a child’s well-being.

Recommendations

Based on the findings from the study and real examples, we concluded that reducing the time delay between drug market development and referrals for child maltreatment investigations may prevent some child maltreatment from occurring. The referral that Nancy received said nothing about possible drug activity or drug use.  It was her first hand knowledge about local drug activity garnered from relationships with law enforcement that had her on alert. This suggests some natural partnerships including increased collaboration between law enforcement and child welfare caseworkers. Police could provide child welfare caseworkers with locations of emerging drug markets as they investigate new drug cases in these areas. Further, information on emerging drug market locations would allow caseworkers or other child welfare professionals to target these areas for prevention programming so that subsequent maltreatment does not occur. Finally, publicizing drug activity in local areas or implementing public awareness campaigns encouraging individuals to report suspected child abuse and neglect in neighborhoods where drug market activities are occurring might further prevent maltreatment.

Bridget Freisthler is a faculty member in UCLA’s Department of Social Welfare.  Nancy J. Williams is a former caseworker for the Department of Children and Family Services and a current doctoral student at UCLA.  A copy of the full study can be found at http://resources.prev.org/documents/DrugMarketsandMaltreatment.pdf.

Ailee Moon Receives St. Barnabas Award Professor Ailee Moon was honored by St. Barnabas Senior Services during their annual Evening Under the Stars event

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The School of Public Affairs congratulates Associate Professor Ailee Moon of the Department of Social Welfare, who was honored by St. Barnabas Senior Services (SBSS) with the Collaborator Award during their annual Evening Under the Stars event on Thursday, April 29, 2010.

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Los Angeles City Councilmember Ed P. Reyes delivered the keynote address; other 2010 honorees include W. June Simmons (Partners in Care Foundation, Impact Award), and Jorge Lambrinos (USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging, Behind-the-Scenes Award).

Professor Moon is active in gerontological research, particularly in the areas of elder abuse, mental health, and service utilization. Currently, she is a Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar, funded to study “Cultural and Non-Cultural Factors in Elder Abuse Assessment and Intervention.” Dr. Moon and her colleagues completed a study, titled “A Multicultural Study of Attitudes toward Elder Mistreatment and Reporting,” funded by the National Center on Elder Abuse. She was a co-principal investigator with Dr. James Lubben on a four-year study funded by the National Institute on Aging that examines social supports and long-term care use among elderly Korean and non-Hispanic white Americans. Dr. Moon has published 55 articles, book chapters, research reports and monographs.

Fernando Torres-Gil Confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a Member of the National Council on Disability

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Associate Dean Fernando Torres-Gil has been named to an Obama administration post as a member and vice chair of the National Council on Disability.  This marks the third term of national service in a
presidential administration for Professor Torres-Gil, who previously served under President Bill Clinton and President Jimmy Carter.
Prior to his roles at UCLA, he served as a professor of gerontology and public administration at the
University of Southern California, where he is still an adjunct professor of gerontology. Before serving in academia, Prof. Torres-Gil was the first assistant secretary for aging in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as the staff director of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Aging.  Prof. Torres-Gil also served as President of the American Society on Aging from 1989 to 1992.

Prof. Torres-Gil holds appointments as professor of social welfare and public policy in the UCLA School of Public Affairs and is the director of the Center for Policy Research on Aging.  Professor Torres-Gil is an expert in the fields of health and long-term care, the politics of aging, social policy, ethnicity and disability.

He is the author of six books and more than 80 articles and book chapters, including The New Aging: Politics and Change in America (1992), and Lessons From Three Nations, Volumes I and II (2007).  In recognition of his many academic accomplishments, he was elected a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America in 1985 and the National Academy of Public Administration in 1995.  He also served as President of the American Society on Aging from 1989 to 1992 and is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.  He is currently a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Polio Survivors, the National Academy of Social Insurance and of the board of directors of Elderhostel, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, the AARP Foundation, the Los Angeles Airport Commission, and The California Endowment.

Mark Peterson on Passage of Health Care Reform Professor Mark Peterson recently went on Minnesota Public Radio to provide analysis on the historic passage of this week's health care reform bill

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Professor Mark Peterson of the Department of Public Policy provided analysis of the historic passage of this week’s health care reform bill; he was featured on “Midmorning” with Kerri Miller on Minnesota Public Radio (along with David Drucker, staff writer for Roll Call; and Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women).

The following is an excerpt from the hour-long program:

KERRY MILLER (Midmorning, Minnesota Public Radio): “Mark, you hear competing arguments about this—the President will say economic recovery is linked to health care reform because it will allow businesses to do better planning, people aren’t going to be so worried about higher premiums, but then you hear Republicans say, ‘Look, this is going to be a jobs killer’ because you’ve got companies that are now going to have to offer health insurance because they’re going to pay a penalty if they don’t.”

MARK PETERSON: “Yes, and there are points to be scored on both sides of that, I think that it’s very important to make that linkage with the economy.  It is important to note that if the Congress had not passed any legislation at all and we continued under the current set of arrangements, the status quo was not going to be a stable experience.  Premiums were going to shoot up quite dramatically, millions more would be losing insurance, and a lot of that is also a drag on the economy as well.  And so you have to compare what is going to happen in the future under the bill, with what would have happened without the bill.

It’s also the case that there are many ways in which businesses right now, that really cannot afford to provide health insurance for their employees—small businesses—by 2014 as the exchanges are being set up, those businesses ultimately will have access to the exchange and be able to provide insurance to their employees at a much, much better rate than they can possibly do now in the small group market.”

Listen to the complete interview here.

Amy Zegart Named to FBI Intelligence Analysts Association (IAA) Board Zegart will provide advice and assistance to the FBI IAA to advance the interests of the FBI’s intelligence analysts in an effort to increase our national security

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The School of Public Affairs congratulates Professor Amy Zegart on her recent appointment to the FBI Intelligence Analysts Association (IAA) external advisory board. In this role, she will provide advice and assistance to the FBI IAA to advance the interests of the FBI’s intelligence analysts in an effort to increase our national security.

Professor Zegart has been featured in the National Journal as one of the ten most influential experts in intelligence reform. In addition to her role as an associate professor at UCLA’s School of Public Affairs, she is also a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a fellow at UCLA’s Burkle Center of International Relations. In 1993, Professor Zegart served on the Clinton administration’s National Security Council staff. Before her academic career, she spent several years as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.

The FBI IAA is an independent professional association dedicated to improving the professional development of the FBI’s 2,500 intelligence analysts throughout the FBI’s fifty-six field offices, FBI headquarters, and its offices abroad.

Mayor Villaraigosa Announces L.A. Solar Energy Incentive Plan Based on UCLA Luskin Research

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J.R. DeShazo, the director UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation, has long studied how governments can promote and help implement environmentally friendly energy policies. Now, his recent research on solar energy incentive programs, conducted with Luskin Center research project manager Ryan Matulka and other colleagues at UCLA, has become the basis for a new energy policy introduced by the city of Los Angeles.

On Monday, March 15, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced an ambitious program to move the city’s energy grid toward renewable energy sources over the next decade. Included in the plan is a provision — based in large part on the Luskin Center research — for a “feed-in tariff,” which would encourage residents to install solar energy systems that are connected to the city’s power grid. The overall plan would require ratepayers to pay 2.7 cents more per kilowatt hour of electricity consumed, with 0.7 cents of that — a so-called carbon surcharge — going to the city’s Renewable Energy and Efficiency Trust, a lockbox that will specifically fund two types of programs: energy efficiency and the solar power feed-in tariff. Under the feed-in tariff system, homeowners, farmers, cooperatives and businesses in Los Angeles that install solar panels on homes or other properties could sell solar energy to public utility suppliers.

The price paid for this renewable energy would be set at an above-market level that covers the cost of the electricity produced, plus a reasonable profit. “A feed-in tariff initiated in this city has the potential to change the landscape of Los Angeles,” said DeShazo, who is also an associate professor of public policy at the UCLA School of Public Affairs. “If incentivized appropriately, the program could prompt individual property owners and businesses to install solar panels on unused spaces including commercial and industrial rooftops, parking lots, and residential buildings. Our projections show that the end result would be more jobs and a significant move to renewable energy with no net cost burden to the city.”

Feed-in tariffs for solar energy have been implemented in Germany and several other European countries, as well as domestically in cities in Florida and Vermont. The programs have moved these regions to the forefront of clean energy. And while these programs have necessitated slight increases in ratepayers’ monthly electricity bills, they have also generated thousands of new jobs.

The mayor estimated that under the program announced Monday, 18,000 new jobs would be generated over the next 10 years. “For Los Angeles to be the cleanest, greenest city, we need participation from every Angeleno,” Villaraigosa said. “We know that dirty fossil fuels will only become more scarce and more expensive in the years to come. This helps move us toward renewable energy while at the same time creating new jobs.”

The new program had its genesis last year, when Villaraigosa announced a long-term, comprehensive solar plan intended to help meet the city’s future clean energy needs. The plan included a proposal for a solar feed-in tariff program administered by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. In September 2009, the Los Angeles Business Council created a Solar Working Group consisting of leaders in the private, environmental and educational sectors in Los Angeles County to investigate the promise of the feed-in tariff for Los Angeles and commissioned the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation to lead the investigation.

In addition to DeShazo and Matulka, the working group also included Sean Hecht and Cara Horowitz from the UCLA School of Law’s Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment. The first phase of their research examined current models operating in Germany, Spain, Canada, Vermont and Florida to propose guidelines for a feed-in tariff design. The second phase looks at the potential participation rates in a large-scale solar feed-in tariff program in Los Angeles and its impact on clean energy in the Los Angeles basin. The Los Angeles Business Council is expected to release the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation’s complete report on solar energy feed-in tariffs next month. The Luskin Center for Innovation at the UCLA School of Public Affairs unites the intellectual capital of UCLA with forward-looking civic leaders in Los Angeles to address urgent public issues and actively work toward solutions. The center’s current focus in on issues of environmental sustainability.

Examining the Legacy of Slavery and Racism In an effort to explore social justice issues and their relevance to students' future careers, the School of Public Affairs hosted a film viewing and discussion about the legacy of slavery and racism in the U.S.

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By Robin Heffler
As part of a School of Public Affairs effort to explore social justice issues and their relevance to students’ future careers, some 170 students, faculty, and community members recently viewed a film and engaged in a lively discussion about the legacy of slavery and racism in the U.S.

Hosted by Dean Franklin D. Gilliam, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, participants gathered on Jan. 19 in the screening room of the Acosta Training Complex to see an abridged version of the documentary film, Traces of the Trade.

In the film, which aired on PBS in 2008, producer and director Katrina Browne tells of her shocking discovery that the De Wolfs of Rhode Island, her prominent, Caucasian ancestors, were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. Together with nine other De Wolf descendants, Browne retraces the slave-trade triangle — from Bristol, Rhode Island to slave forts in Ghana to a family plantation in Cuba and back to Bristol. Along the way, they struggle with the politics of race, how to “repair” the centuries-long damage of slavery, and their own Yankee culture and privilege.

After the screening, Browne reflected on one cousin’s insistence that he would have gone to Harvard even if he wasn’t from a privileged family. “When the wind is at your back you don’t notice it,” she said. “You don’t realize the forces supporting you as you move forward, but you do when you’re faced with obstacles to success.”

African-American co-producer Juanita Brown noted that “We must recognize that race is complex, and that black and white is only one element. We invite you to see this conversation as the jumping off point for conversations about other people and races.”

Program participants engaged in one-on-one discussions about the film, as well as a question-and-answer session.

“No one wants to associate with the oppressor because of the guilt and shame involved, but we need to acknowledge history and how it plays out in the present,” said Amy Smith, a first-year social welfare graduate student, who had just spent the day discussing white privilege in her class on “Cross-Cultural Awareness.” “And, since racism is a problem that affects everyone, everyone should be part of the solution.”

Associate Professor Laura Abrams, who along with Joy Crumpton and Gerardo Laviña leads the “Cross-Cultural Awareness” class in the Department of Social Welfare, saw the issues raised by the film as important for social workers. “In a helping profession, it’s easy to see clients as having made bad choices rather than seeing their lives as structured by disadvantages and inequalities related to race, class, and gender,” she said.

Gilliam, who served as an early advisor to the film, said the event was the second of a planned series of programs focused on social justice issues. Last year, the UCLA School of Public Affairs had an exchange with the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, with each school hosting conferences on how to talk about race in the context of graduate education in public affairs.

“We want to do a better job of giving students the analytical tools to examine issues of social justice, which they will need to deal with the people they will be helping when they graduate,” he said.

Gilliam said plans include developing a curriculum, research opportunities, and a summer institute related to social justice. Together with Student Affairs, he also would like to hold social-justice dialogues with undergraduates, who then would dialogue with Los Angeles-area high school students.

Heffler is a Los Angeles-based free-lance writer and former UCLA editor

Remembering Jeanne Giovannoni, Professor of Social Welfare

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Jeanne Giovannoni, professor of social welfare at UCLA for many years, passed away on December 17, 2009. She had been seriously ill for some months, but was alert in her hospital bed through her final hours.

Professor Giovannoni remained close to many of her UCLA colleagues, and she would brighten during their visits and at the mention of her faculty friends.

A former psychiatric social worker, Professor Giovannoni was among the best known scholars in child welfare. Her 1979 book, “Defining Child Abuse,” was a highly cited source in the field of child maltreatment. Professor Giovannoni was active in many spheres for her entire life.  From 1969-1993, she was an unusually productive faculty member and also served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Relations. Before and after her retirement in 1993, she was involved in many causes and organizations, rendering service to UCLA and national, state and local organizations. She served as a consultant to the U.S. Veteran’s Administration, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Juvenile Division of Los Angeles County Superior Court, and was on the Board of Directors of El Nido Family Centers. She continued her scholarship throughout her life, and as recently as 2006, published a paper on consumer perceptions of services in family resource centers.

Jeanne Giovannoni embodied the best traditions of UCLA, and will be missed.

Nonprofits React to UCLA Report on Their Struggle in Recession A UCLA Center for Civil Society study finds that costs and demands of non profits are rising while funding is diminishing

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By Robin Heffler

On Friday, October 23, the UCLA Center for Civil Society in the UCLA School of Public Affairs released a report detailing the mixed impact of the current economic downturn on the local non-profit sector, delivering its findings in person to 185 representatives of non-profit organizations in the greater Los Angeles area, and receiving their immediate feedback.

Among the major findings were that most Los Angeles-area nonprofit organizations have experience reductions in funding from government and private foundations, while costs and demands for their services have risen. Yet the nonprofits largely have been able to retain their volunteers, staff, and programs.

The report, Resilience and Vulnerability: The State of the Nonprofit Sector in Los Angeles , was presented at the Center’s annual conference for local nonprofits, held at the Skirball Cultural Center. Researched and written by David B. Howard and Hyeon Jong Kil (both doctoral researchers in Social Welfare), it was based on a survey of more than 250 non-profit organizations from June to August 2009. There are about 41,500 registered nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles County.

One conference attendee, Abbe Lande of the Saban Free Clinic, echoed the report’s findings when she told other participants, “At every staff meeting we talk about tightening our belts. We keep doing more with less—trying to squeeze in more patients without hiring more staff –and the pressure to produce is intense. We’re seeing more people come in for the first time with incomes of about 200 percent of the poverty level. A lot of it is for mental health services.”

To better weather the recession, the report recommended that nonprofits focus more on program evaluation to better attract funders and make decisions about scarce resources; engage in widespread advocacy efforts, including discussions about policy decisions with elected officials and lawmakers; and collaborate with other nonprofits to decrease costs, increase efficiency, and share knowledge, merging when necessary.

Ted Knoll, who runs the Whittier Area First Day Coalition, which provides services for those who are homeless or at-risk of being homeless, said he appreciated both the “content and process” of the conference. “We did a merger in 2001, so I know this is doable,” he said. “The conference has made me think about possibly doing it again. At the same time, I’m networking with people I haven’t seen in years.”

Conference participants shared their experiences during small-group discussions on the findings. David Howard said that feedback will be included in an addendum to the report. “It helps us to tell a clearer story of what’s happening to nonprofits, which helps deliver messages that often get lost in the numbers,” he said.

In closing remarks, Helmut Anheier, founding director of the Center, said, “We will have a slow recovery for nonprofits. We didn’t learn the lessons from the previous recessions – that you need to prepare for them when times are good. This crisis will push business and nonprofits closer because there is little that the government can offer. Nonprofits will need to make sure that their concerns are part of the political agenda.”

 

 

 

Intervening in Violence: “People Join Gangs Because of a Lethal Absence of Hope” Associate professor Jorja Leap discusses factors that lead to young people joining gangs on radio show

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Jorja Leap, adjunct associate professor of social welfare, appeared as a guest on the Howard Gluss radio show to discuss the factors that lead to young people joining gangs.

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Jorja Leap is an expert in crisis intervention and trauma response. Her research examines gangs, prison culture and high-risk and system-involved youth

“So many of the young men and young women I have worked with over the years come from families where there has been abuse,” says Leap. “They come from families where other family members have been gang members themselves. They come from families where there has been substance abuse and multiple problems and they also come from communities that are impoverished, but also more importantly communities that are affected by violence.”

The following is an excerpt from the interview:

GLUSS: We need the facts and then we need an emotional connection to the facts. So give us some of the facts.

LEAP: Well, the facts are, and I’m going to quote Father Greg Boyle here, gangs do not arise and people do not join gangs because of violence, people join gangs because of a lethal absence of hope.

GLUSS: Which is depression.

LEAP: It’s depression, you’re absolutely right. It’s a sense of powerlessness. It’s feeling there are no opportunities, no options, no one who cares. And that’s what it comes from. It comes from depression, and it also comes from, this will come as no surprise to you and I’m sure to other listeners, it also comes from families and communities.

So many of the young men and young women I have worked with over the years come from families where there has been abuse. They come from families where other family members have been gang members themselves. They come from families where there has been substance abuse and multiple problems and they also come from communities that are impoverished, but also more importantly communities that are affected by violence.

And you’ve mentioned that I’ve worked all over the world and one of the commonalities is that when young people and children are raised in violent communities they often have post traumatic stress disorder even as they are growing up and they will join gangs and engage in violent behavior strangely enough in order to feel empowered.

GLUSS: There’s a sense of respect and self esteem with that.

LEAP: Exactly…now you know, for example, I witnessed one very powerful transformation. There are young men and young women who are now being trained, former gang members that are being trained in solar panel installation, a job that with which they can earn a tremendous amount of money. The transformation in them and the sense of control they begin to feel is just astonishing in terms of themselves and their identity.

Listen to the entire interview here.

Dr. Jorja Leap is a professor at UCLA, a recognized expert in crisis intervention and trauma response and has been involved with training and research for the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as part of post-war development and conflict resolution in Bosnia and Kosovo and has conducted work with the families of victims of the 9/11 WTC disaster. She is the author of the book, “No One Knows Their Names.”