Social Work, Criminal Justice, and the Death Penalty

Social Work, Criminal Justice, and the Death Penalty aims to prepare undergraduate and graduate students to take an active role in the contemporary death penalty discourse in the United States by providing key insights from professionals who are engaged as legal, forensic, academic, and social work experts. In this textbook, contributing authors write accessibly from their own experiences and expertise in death penalty cases and related social issues from a critical, social justice, and human rights perspective—all intended to better inform the burgeoning social work and criminal justice professional. To this end, the present textbook is comprised of three sections: Criminal Justice Considerations, Sociopolitical Considerations, and Applied Social Work Considerations. Across the three sections, each chapter provides explicit implications for the social work profession in the criminal justice setting. Examples of the various roles that social work professionals can and do take up related to the death penalty, including working directly with death sentenced persons and their families; participating in mitigation work; contributing to the field of research devoted to the intersections of mental health and the criminal justice system; as clinically licensed social workers, by engaging in the critical discourse that is being had between the psychiatric and psychological professions and the legal profession when death eligibility hinges on a clinical determination; and, finally, using social advocacy and policy practice to take up the death penalty from a social justice framework.

Author(s):  
Larry Nackerud

This chapter addresses how structuralism can be a useful lens through which to view social issues and specifically, for viewing neoliberalism in the United States and its seeming natural predecessors, privatization and deregulation. Such efforts within the criminal justice system may present as, for example, private prison industry and mass incarceration. There are three goals of this chapter: (a) to convince the reader of the value of structural theory as a means of examining helping systems, (b) to convince the reader to be wary of neoliberal prescriptive practices, and (c) to suggest to the reader a consideration for how social work can affect criminal justice reform from the macro social work perspective. With regard to the latter, this chapter also addresses the role of radical social work and critical criminology.


10.18060/109 ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine N. Dulmus ◽  
Lessi L. Bass ◽  
Shelia G. Bunch

Individuals with MSW degrees and who were members of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) in the United States (N=862) were surveyed and asked what best represents the social work profession mission for them. They were provided with 7 pre-selected choices (i.e advocacy; lobbying; social justice; community organization; clinical work with individuals, families, and groups; advancement of the social work profession; or other) from which to choose one response. Over 66% of those responding chose clinical work with individuals, families, and groups as the mission of the social work profession. With the complex problems facing societies today will social work be at the forefront of the challenge of have we turned away from our historical mission of promoting social justice? This paper focuses on the finding from this research study and discusses its implications for social work education and the social work profession, as well as those individuals whom social workers serve.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002087282110079
Author(s):  
Robert K Chigangaidze

Any health outbreak is beyond the biomedical approach. The COVID-19 pandemic exposes a calamitous need to address social inequalities prevalent in the global health community. Au fait with this, the impetus of this article is to explore the calls of humanistic social work in the face of the pandemic. It calls for the pursuit of social justice during the pandemic and after. It also calls for a holistic service provision, technological innovation and stewardship. Wrapping up, it challenges the global community to rethink their priorities – egotism or altruism. It emphasizes the ultimate way forward of addressing the social inequalities.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002087282110200
Author(s):  
Kang Liu ◽  
Catherine A Flynn

While the environment is fundamental to humankind’s wellbeing, to date, social work has been largely focused on the social, rather than the physical, environment. To map how the broader environment is captured in the profession’s foundational documents, an exploratory sequential mixed methods study (QUAL → quan) analysed data from 64 social work codes of ethics. Findings indicate that although the environment is mentioned in the majority of these, there is a continued focus on the social, overlooking to some degree the physical, predominantly the built, environment. A more holistic understanding of the environment would enable social work to better fulfil its commitment to human rights and social justice.


Author(s):  
Susan Flynn

Despite the traditional social justice mandate of social work, and critical and radical theoretical traditions that pursue egalitarian and just societies, the engagement of the social work academy with Irish politics has been underwhelming at best. While there are abstract analyses that address sociopolitical theory and ideological wrongdoings related to neoliberalist rationality, attention in social work academia to the nuts and bolts of everyday political life in Ireland, such as democratic party politics and electoral representation, leaves much to the imagination. This article therefore pursues a more grounded reading of social justice in Irish politics for social workers. The supporting proposition is that to effectively interject in political misrecognition and marginalisation, social workers must understand the present political state of play. Towards achieving this, Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition aids thematic critical commentary on the literature.


Author(s):  
Liz Beddoe ◽  
Allen Bartley

This chapter summarises the recurring themes and lessons from the preceding substantive chapters and reflects upon their implications. It draws together the different issues, laws and culture in social work across the five countries examined, and compares the country-specific challenges raised in the chapters. The editors make recommendations for how the social work profession can take a more active role in the transition of Transnational Social Workers, and highlight good practice in preceding chapters. Finally, they comment on the need for more research in the area, including with service users.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (40) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilmaisa Macedo da Costa

Resumo − Este artigo tem por finalidade revisitar o tema das origens do Serviço Social em seu processo de institucionalização nos Estados Unidos. Expõe aspectos das bases históricas e teóricas da profissão, revelando conteúdos referentes ao Serviço Social clássico, hoje pouco analisado no interior da formação, limitando possivelmente a informação aos estudantes e profissionais sobre a produção do Serviço Social em seu contexto originário e talvez até mesmo a crítica a ele realizada. O texto trata do pensamento de Mary Ellen Richmond e sua proposição do Serviço Social de casos individuais, mostrando as bases teórico-metodológicas para uma ação sobre os indivíduos sociais em meio a um conjunto de interpretações divergentes sobre o tema. O pensamento de Richmond exerceu forte influência no Serviço Social europeu e no Brasil, oferecendo o suporte para que se fizesse uma crítica às tendências oriundas da base positivista e as insuficiências ali contidas como proposição conservadora. Palavras-Chave: Serviço Social clássico; institucionalização; bases teórico-metodológicas.   Abstract − This article aims to revisit the origins of social work in its process of institutionalization in the United States. It exposes aspects of the historical and theoretical bases of the profession, revealing contents referring to classic social work that are little analyzed today in undergraduate courses, possibly restricting information valuable to students and professionals about the inception of social work in its original context and perhaps even the criticism it received. The text deals with the thought of Mary Ellen Richmond and her proposal of the social work of individual cases, showing the theoretical-methodological bases for an action on social individuals in the middle of a set of divergent interpretations on the subject. Richmond's thought exerted a strong influence on both European and Brazilian social work, offering support to the criticism of tendencies originating from the Positivist base and the inadequacies contained therein as a conservative proposition. Keywords: classic social work; institutionalization; theoretical-methodological bases.  


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Lytle Hernández

Convicts and undocumented immigrants are similarly excluded from full social and political membership in the United States. Disfranchised, denied core protections of the social welfare state and subject to forced removal from their homes, families, and communities, convicts and undocumented immigrants, together, occupy the caste of outsiders living within the United States. This essay explores the rise of the criminal justice and immigration control systems that frame the caste of outsiders. Reaching back to the forgotten origins of immigration control during the era of black emancipation, this essay highlights the deep and allied inequities rooted in the rise of immigration control and mass incarceration.


2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-73
Author(s):  
Simon Funge ◽  
Nancy Meyer-Adams ◽  
Chris Flaherty ◽  
Gretchen Ely ◽  
Jeffrey Baer

The Council on Social Work Education identifies social justice as one of 10 core competencies in its 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards. Educators can find it daunting to address this particular competency. The National Association of Social Workers' Social Work Speaks can provide a practical guide for educating students in the policy positions of social work's primary professional association. This article offers uses of these materials that can infuse social justice concepts into foundation coursework, mitigating not only some of the challenges associated with teaching this content but also fostering the expected practice behaviors associated with the social justice competency. This model can apply to teaching strategies pertaining to the other nine competencies. Examples of assignments and methods for assessment are provided.


Author(s):  
Anya Jabour

Chapter 7 focuses on Breckinridge’s involvement in an international women’s movement dedicated to feminism, pacifism, and justice that flourished in the United States and Europe during and after World War I. This chapter explores the origins of Breckinridge’s pacifism, her introduction to feminist-pacifism during World War I, and her continuing commitment to internationalism in the isolationist 1920s. Breckinridge maintained her commitment to social justice and her participation in international social work circles even at the height of the Red Scare.


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