What are the minimalist and maximalist perspectives on the incidence, prevalence, and seriousness of child abuse?
What will be an ideal response?
The maximalists argue the problem of child abuse is more widespread and severe than people know. Their stance is child abuse is an epidemic and needs to be taken more seriously by society and its institutions. Maximalists/alarmists contend most crimes of abuse are unreported and any current statistics would be way below what we should expect. Many children who are abused are afraid to tell, might purposely forget or hide it, and distrust government service workers. Social service agencies do not have a handle of the number of cases of child abuse according to maximalists. These agencies are understaffed, under-resourced, and overburdened with cases to do proper investigation.
Minimalists contend child abuse is not an epidemic, in fact it is not as grave as indicated by the maximalists. These skeptics argue most cases are minor instances and some physical punishments should not be defined as child abuse—such as spanking. Child abuse should be defined as those cases where there is clearly inappropriate and excessive force used upon a child. Minimalists advocate for clearer definitions and for the exclusion of cases in official statistics where the case was dismissed or closed due to insufficient evidence.
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The ballot initiative offered a dramatic solution to the problem of California's overcrowded prisons and jails. Called Proposition 47, it proposed to downgrade a number of nonviolent felonies involving less than $950-including grand theft, shoplifting, writing bad checks, receiving stolen property, and drug possession-to misdemeanors. As a result of this change, offenders convicted of these crimes would probably not wind up behind bars. In 2014, thirty states passed legislation designed to lower incarceration rates, often by steering nonviolent offenders to community supervision. These policy choices reflect a small but significant trend in American corrections: fewer inmates. To be sure, these decreases do little to threaten our nation's title as "the globe's leading incarcerator." About
2.2 million Americans are in prison and jail. The United States locks up six times as many of its citizens as Canada does, and eight times as many as a number of European democracies. Still, the fact that politicians are willing to accept policies that reduce the number of inmates represents a sea change in the country's corrections strategies. Which of the following decarceration methods was used by California to decrease the prison population? A. Decreasing the probability that nonviolent offenders will be sentenced to prison B. Increasing the rate of release of nonviolent offenders from prison C. Decreasing the rate of imprisonment for probation and parole violators D. All of these are correct
Which of the following is not a risk factor of intimate partner homicide?
A. past abuse B. being male C. drug use D. controlling relationships
A(n) ________ tends to cost divorcing parties less than a contested trial.
Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).
A combination of importation theory and deprivation theory is known as the ________.
A. learning theory B. integration model C. adaptive theory D. exportation model