Corey S. Shdaimah

Converging on Empathy: Perspectives on Baltimore City's Specialized Prostitution Diversion Program

This article explores perceptions of 17 women currently or formerly engaged in prostitution regarding Baltimore Citys Specialized Prostitution Diversion program. Findings indicate that most perceive the program positively because they are in desperate need of services and because they hope it augurs the readiness of the criminal justice system to understand what leads them to engage in prostitution. Their desire to be treated like “human beings” in need of assistance, which undergirds requests for concrete services, reveals gendered understandings of responsibility and dependence that are compatible with problem-solving models of justice. It is therefore likely to resonate with criminal justice stakeholders.

Trauma and Substance Abuse Among Women in Prostitution: Implications for a Specialized Diversion Program

This study was undertaken to inform the implementation of a specialized prostitution diversion program to help women quit prostitution and avoid criminal prosecution. Data on 17 womens experience of trauma and substance abuse and their views on how these experiences affected their involvement in prostitution were gathered in focus groups and face-to-face interviews (including measures of substance abuse, trauma, and PTSD) conducted at a drop-in program in Baltimore, Maryland. The results indicate that the women experienced high levels of trauma and substance abuse interwoven with prostitution. Trauma-informed services and integrated substance abuse and trauma-specific treatment are needed.

The Power of Perspective: Teaching Social Policy with Documentary Film.

Documentaries can be used as a pedagogical tool to better understand social policy. This medium is especially suited to provide perspectives that often go unheard in policy debates, academic discussions, and textbooks. While many social work educators use documentary films, there is little discussion about this media in the social work literature. Drawing on interdisciplinary film scholarship and the authors classroom experience, this article raises questions about the use of documentary films in the social work policy classroom. What is the role of the educator in choosing films? How can we apply the critical skills of policy analysis to this particular medium? The final section includes recommendations for using documentaries in the social work classroom.

Crime and compassion: Women in prostitution at the intersection of criminality and victimization

Women who are charged with prostitution sit at an intersection of victimization and criminality. It is widely acknowledged that many women who engage in prostitution, especially those engaged in street prostitution, suffer from a variety of problems including past and current trauma and abuse, substance abuse, mental and physical health disorders, and housing instability. Our interviews and focus groups with 17 women currently and formerly engaged in prostitution reveal that survival needs and coercion are factors in their involvement in prostitution. They are also commonly victimized prior to and during their involvement in prostitution. In August 2007, the State’s Attorney’s Office of the City of Baltimore began an initiative to create an alternative for people who are charged with prostitution, which is a crime in Maryland. These efforts stem from what may be considered a discomfort and ambivalence with a criminological approach to offenders who are simultaneously considered victims. Diversionary approaches are an attempt to manage these ambivalent and often conflicting constructions of women who engage in prostitution. However, such programs will largely serve as a palliative rather than a long term solution if they fail to address the personal and structural factors that severely circumscribe the choices available to this marginalized population.

“Can You Help With That Instead of Putting Me in Jail?”: Participant Insights on Baltimore City's Specialized Prostitution Diversion Program

This article reports data from a primarily qualitative study of Baltimore Citys Specialized Diversion Program (SPD), an alternative criminal justice response to prostitution grounded in problem-solving models of justice. Data were drawn from observations of interactions between participants and SPD staff and semistructured interviews with twenty-one SPD clients. These were supplemented with data on prostitution arrestees’ demographics (N = 616) over a thirteen-month period and SPD eligibility, program uptake, and completion (N = 431) over a nine-month period. All respondents exhibited a dire need for assistance with concerns such as severe mental health problems, health conditions, addiction, poverty, and limited educational and employment opportunities. They expressed the importance of compassionate and dignified service delivery and a sense of meaningful accomplishment upon completion, all of which support a problem-solving model. Despite the assistance they received and their strong support for the program, many still remained in situations that could undermine the achievements they attained in the SPD.

“First and Foremost They’re Survivors” Selective Manipulation, Resilience, and Assertion Among Prostitute Women

Based on qualitative data from three sites (N = 76), we describe prostitute women’s agency and problematize dominant assumptions. Prostitute women exhibit creative, resilient, and rational conduct. Rejecting victimhood, our respondents demonstrate moral reasoning, make choices, work systems that dominate their lives, and assert power and control when they can. Their resistance, while serving a symbolic function, also expresses their system savvy and self-advocacy that produce measurable benefits. We distinguish between “being manipulative” and context-specific ethical conduct intended to further their survival.

Of Pots of Gold and Pots of Glue: Society's Maltreatment of America's Poorest Children and Their Families

Abstract This article reports data from two qualitative studies with child welfare lowyers, judges, masters, and social workers (N = 59). Two themes emerged: the first is that child welfare involvement occurs within a broader societal context, and that child protective services and courts are called to address a broad range of concerns with severely inadequate resources. Participants saw that the paucity of resources as evidence of lack of societal concern for poor children and their families. They attribute lack of concern to ignorance of the circumstances faced by these vulnerable populations and to disregard due to their lack of political power.

Social Work Sense and Sensibility: A Framework for Teaching an Integrated Perspective

The divisions between ‘micro practice’ and ‘macro practice’ are often traced to historical splits between the originating strands of the social work profession. These splits have been reified in social work education and in institutional settings that largely focus on particular aspects of practice. We argue that this split has been overly polarized and, more importantly, disregards the science and ethics of social work—what we call the sense and sensibility of the profession. Science requires that we recognize the complexity of human activity; ethics require that we alleviate individual suffering and work to attack its root causes. Social work sense and sensibility interweave expectations that practice, policy, theory and research understandings must all be informed by, and inform, ethical social work practice. This bridging framework can help educators respond to calls for connecting all levels and types of social work practice.

Child Welfare in the Court: A Collaboration Between Social Work and Law Faculty to Prepare Social Work Students for Work With the Courts

This article reports on an innovative interdisciplinary short course in which social work students at a masters level work with law and social work faculty and law students in a simulated child welfare court experience. Social workers are called to work in a range of court settings including child welfare, criminal justice, and custody hearings. Social work students show interest in gaining knowledge and skills to raise their comfort level and gain competence necessary to work in these settings. The goals and structure of the course developed at the University of Maryland are described, in addition to lessons learned in its implementation. This description is followed by more general recommendations that have come from experience with the program and feedback received from participating students and faculty.

Condoms and Cupcakes: Fostering Autonomy Through Relationships of Care With Women in Prostitution

This article reports on an anti-oppressive approach to working with prostitute women based on findings from a study exploring the perspectives of 17 women who attended a drop-in program run by a nonprofit organization in Baltimore, MD, as well as site observations and interactions with program staff. The organization creates a compassionate space where women may grow as they choose rather than the typical punitive or rescuing strategies employed by courts and social service agencies. We discuss implications of this compassionate approach for radical practice in court-based and social service programs designed for women in prostitution against the backdrop of coercion and autonomy.