Lia Levin

The Attitudes Toward Prostitutes and Prostitution Scale: A New Tool for Measuring Public Attitudes Toward Prostitutes and Prostitution

Contemporary developments in social attitudes toward prostitution and prostitutes influence both social policies and the social work profession. Understanding individuals’ attitudes toward these issues is necessary for the development of social interventions and policies aimed at reducing stigmata attached to them. This article describes a new research measure for the assessment of attitudes toward prostitutes and prostitution (the Attitudes toward Prostitutes and Prostitution Scale; APPS), and outlines its development process. Results from pilot studies using the APPS are presented, alongside detailed information regarding the measure’s psychometric properties. The article concludes with a review of possible uses and limitations of the APPS.

Towards a revised definition of client collaboration: the knowledge–power–politics triad

Client collaboration has long since been a core principle in social work practice. Despite its wide reference in the professions practical and theoretical discourse, no single, clearly delineated definition of it can be found in the literature. This article presents a proposed framework for defining and assessing client collaboration, which rests upon three key concepts — sharing of knowledge, sharing of power, and political context.

Searching for Poverty-aware Social Work: Discourse Analysis of Job Descriptions

This article aims to enrich the current limited body of knowledge regarding social work professional discourse. More specifically, it seeks to examine the extent and ways in which the social work intra-profession discourse, as it is manifested in formal job descriptions of social workers in Israel, reflects the commitment to working with people living in poverty and to confronting poverty. We provide a brief review of the concept of professional discourse and the role of formal job descriptions in this discourse in general, and in Israel in particular. ‘Poverty-aware social work’ is then conceptualised. Against this background, we analysed 75 job descriptions in order to ascertain whether, and in what ways, references to poverty appear in defining client populations, in directions for assessing their situation, and in defining the goals and methods of professional intervention. The research findings reflect a textual silence in relation to poverty issues in job descriptions. The analysis of poverty-related sub-topics in these documents suggests that job descriptions offer, and simultaneously reproduce a conservative and a-political perspective on poverty and on social work practice with people living in poverty.

Attitudes towards poverty, organizations, ethics and morals: Israeli social workers’ shared decision making

Partnerships between service users and social workers are complex in nature and can be driven by both personal and contextual circumstances. This study sought to explore the relationship between social workers’ involvement in shared decision making with service users, their attitudes towards service users in poverty, moral standards and health and social care organizations’ policies towards shared decision making.

Impact of financial and employment status on the co-parenting of divorcing couples in Israel

Abstract The study examines the association between the financial and employment status of 71 Israeli couples in the process of divorce and their co-parenting, as measured by participation in their children’s lives, communication about their children, consideration for the other parent’s childcare needs, and inter-spousal tension and hostility. Its findings show that each parent’s self-reported financial status was associated with both their own and the other parents co-parenting. Most predominantly, its findings point to the differential effects financial status and employment have on divorcing mothers and fathers. These findings are discussed in relation to the ‘gender contract’ still prevalent among many parental units in Israel. Conclusions emphasizing the importance of relating to financial issues during the divorce process itself are presented, alongside their derivative implications for practitioners and policy makers.