J. William Spencer

Out-of-home maltreatment: An analysis of risk in various settings for children

Abstract Abuse and neglect of children in out-of-home care are common, but comparisons of relative risk among such facilities are rare. Data from Indiana for the period 1984–1990 permit an examination of maltreatment in various settings and computations of rates of physical and sexual abuse and neglect. Findings suggest that children in daycare homes and centers and schools are less likely to be maltreated than those in foster homes, residential homes, or state institutions and hospitals. These differences in risk may reflect variation in staff morale and turnover, different ages and experiences of children, alternative emphases on custody, control or nurturance by the home or institution, and different approaches to substantiating abuse. However, in three of the seven out-of-home settings, there are higher rates of maltreatment than for children in their own homes. Some implications of these findings are explored.

The Different Influences of Newspaper and Television News Reports of a Natural Hazard on Response Behavior

This article examines the publics responses to newspaper and television reports of an impending natural hazard that threatened local water supplies. A conceptual model is developed in which we argue that distinct characteristics of the two media differentially affect response behavior. The results provide strong support for the hypotheses derived from the conceptual model, suggesting that different aspects of reports in the two media affect response behavior, as measured by wholesale sales of bottled water.

The Contested Meaning of the Crosses at Columbine

Spontaneous memorials that emerged at Columbine after the shootings became a focal point of news coverage. Especially visible in this discourse were 15 wooden crosses that symbolized the 13 victims of the shootings and the 2 youth who carried out the shootings. The discourse about such memorials has much to reveal about the collective meanings of the events that gave rise to them. In the case of the crosses of Columbine, these meanings are matters of both consensus and contestation. This article examines how the news media constructed the controversy over the crosses through the ways that they represented the shootings, their aftermath, and the participants. It also examines how the resolution to the controversy was constructed from the very language used to construct it. The conclusion examines Columbines role as a model for public mourning, one that suggests the victory of traditional senses of moral culpability.

“I Felt Guilty for Being So Happy”: Narrative Expressions and Management of Postdivorce Ambivalence

ABSTRACT Scholars have highlighted ambivalence as a central feature of experiences of divorce and its aftermath and discussed ambivalence as an important issue for divorcees in adjusting to their new status. While most of this scholarship assesses postdivorce ambivalence as a psychological phenomenon to be addressed therapeutically, this study analyzes postdivorce ambivalence as an interpretive problem to be addressed sociologically. Following Merton’s (1976) insight that ambivalence be viewed as rooted in culture and social structure as well as individual psyche, we use a narrative analytic perspective to examine how divorcees both discursively express and interpretively manage their ambivalence. We then consider some of the more general cultural discourses—such as images of marriage and divorce—that shape or condition these narratives. Ultimately, we argue that conflicting stances toward marriage in the wider U.S. culture are at once important sources of postdivorce ambivalence and significant interpretive resources for its discursive management.