Ben-Zion Cohen

The Willingness to Seek Help: A Cross-National Comparison

Building on previous research that provides the basis for treating the willingness to seek help as a stable attitudinal set, present in varying degrees in differentpersons, and predictive of behavior, this study addresses two questions: First, to what extent is the willing ness to seek help associated with culture? Second, how do the factors influencing willingness to seek help differ across cultures? Young adults in Hungary, Israel, and the United States (N = 384) provided sociodemographic information and filled out a questionnaire designed to measure their willingness to seek help. The results of the analyses indicate differences between the three countries in the overall willingness to seek help and in the variables predictive of the willingness to seek help. These differences are attributed to differential features of the cultures from which the three subsamples were drawn.

Teaching about poverty in Israeli schools of social work

persons living in poverty. The ’official dictionary’ of the social work profession (Barker, 1987) offers no definition of ’poor’ and treats ’poverty’ briefly: ’the state of being poor or deficient in money or means of subsistence’ (Barker, 1987: 123). While these terms obviously have different meanings for different people, the meanings vary not only across individuals but also, and perhaps most significantly, across cultures, periods, ideologies and circumstance. Political establishments, when dealing with poverty issues in public discourse, have learned to use this ambiguity for their own purposes. In Israel, once each year over the past several decades, the National Insurance Institute (equivalent to the US Social Security Administration) has published a set of official statistics about poverty. This event sets off an annual public outcry about the extent of the problem: in a population of 4.5 million, half a million people are

Professional commitment among graduating BSW students in Israel

The verb ’commit’ is a curious one. It can refer to an internal state, to external actions, or to the linkage between the two. When one commits oneself to an ideal or to a religious doctrine (the intransitive use of the verb), the reference is to a promise or resolution, which may or may not require action at some future time. On the other hand, to commit suicide, murder or an act of charity (the transitive use) is to perform a concrete deed. The third use of the term, commitment as ’a decisive moral choice that involves a person in a definite course of action’ (Gove, 1986: 457), subsumes the resolution, the deed, and the relationship between them. It is this last use that is germane to the discussion of commitment to the social work profession. The social work profession has been consistent in its emphasis

The efficacy of probation versus imprisonment in reducing recidivism of serious offenders in Israel

This is a study of 202 adult offenders, all convicted of serious felonies and all recommended for probation supervision by the investigating probation officers. Ninety-seven (48 percent) were granted probation; the rest were sentenced to prison terms of up to seven years. The police records of the two groups for the five-year period following completion of probation or prison showed no significant differences in recidivism. Using multivariate techniques and diverse measures of recidivism, the research could find no significant influence for type of sentence. Various offenders attributes, particularly lack of education, were the best predictors of recidivism.

Judicial discretion and sentencing disparity in adult felony courts in Israel

Abstract This study focuses on a series of legal, extralegal, and systemic variables presumed to affect the workings of criminal-justice systems. These variables are employed first to analyze the decision of the court to refer defendants for presentence investigation when such a referral is not mandatory, then to examine how these referrals, once made, influence disposition. The relationship of legal representation to disposition is also explored. The findings contradict conventional wisdom regarding the advantages to defendants of legal representation and of presentence reports. Lawyers do not appear to influence either referral or sentencing. The presentence reports are requested by judges seeking to individualize their sentencing decisions, but this process of individualization is as likely to result in harsher sentences as in greater leniency.

Graduating social work students' communication competencies and motivations: their effects on satisfaction with social work

fundamentals. The need to define these skills is particularly important in shaping the professional identity which social work educators present to their students in the hope that it will speak to their aspirations. Clearly, the degree to which students can take on this professional identity impacts how satisfied they will be with their choice of profession and course of study. Fischer (1978) based his definition of basic skills on Carl Rogers’ (1957) classic formulation of the three requirements, or ’core conditions’ for successful treatment. Hepworth and Larsen (1990: 86) frame their analysis with an updated version of the Rogerian ’core conditions’: empathy, authenticity, and respect. The first two

Social Control, Delinquency, and Victimization among Kibbutz Adolescents:

An index based on Hirschi’s theory designed to measure social control in kibbutz society was applied to a random sample of 440 high school students in the kibbutzim of Northern Israel. The delinquency variable was measured by self-report on the frequency of two illegal behaviors condemned by adult kibbutz society but not excessively stigmatized by the youth: driving without a license and stealing from the kibbutz mini-market. Victimization was measured by self-report on incidents during the past year involving person or property. Seventy percent of the participants in the study reported having committed at least one offense. Approximately 80% reported at least one victimization. At the bivariate level, the social control index generated weak but statistically significant negative correlations with both delinquency and victimization.

The Family Therapy Chronogram: An Aid to Supervision

Complex family therapy sessions have given rise to a need for structured and innovative supervisory techniques. One, the family therapy interaction chronogram, provides a framework for workers to organize and analyze the interactional data of therapy sessions under the direction of a supervisor.

A Multidimensional Approach to the Problem of Crime Seriousness

The interest of the discipline in explaining the attribution of severity to offenses has been enduring but the methods of the past have contributed little to our understanding of the concept of severity and its components. This study introduces a new method designed to address the methodological and theoretical concerns of working criminologists. Randomly selected respondents sorted index cards containing descriptions of specific crimes. First, they grouped the cards by perceived similarity of offenses, then they ranked the offenses within each group according to perceived severity. The authors, after applying smallest space analysis to the results of the card sort, conclude that two discrete variables account jointly for the perception of crime severity by the citizen: Presence of criminal intent and degree of injury. The implications of replacing unidimensional methods with this new approach are discussed.

Outcomes of the Decision to Terminate Drug Abuse: An Application of Rational Choice Theory

ABSTRACT Cusson and Pinsonneaults theory of desistance from criminal behavior and Trevor Bennets analysis of drug-taking careers provide the theoretical underpinnings for this study of 180 young men with histories of substance abuse. All the participants were living in the community and had decided to quit at least once previously. One hundred were drug-free; eighty were active users. The hypothesis predicted that the decision to quit would have had the highest probability of success under two conditions: (a) the impetus for the decision was a traumatic event, and (b) an alternative lifestyle was available to the person when he quit using drugs, and its details and accessibility known in advance. The hypothesis was confirmed.