Foreword
Just 10 years ago the Social Policy Agency of the Department of Social Welfare published the first issue of the Social Policy Journal of New Zealand. Later, with remarkably little change of actual staff, the Journal came out under the banner of the Ministry of Social Policy’s Knowledge Management Group. I am pleased to announce that the Social Policy Journal is now produced by the newly launched Centre for Social Research and Evaluation of the Ministry of Social Development (with no change of staff whatsoever). Throughout this decade, and despite changes in sponsorship, the Journal has continued to provide a forum for debate on important topics across the spectrum of social policy.
Two topics regularly explored in the Journal in the past are poverty measurement and the analysis of the Benefit Dynamics Database, and these are developed further in Issue Nineteen. Bryan Perry argues that we need to go beyond relying on income measures alone if we wish to understand how it is that there are New Zealanders living with inadequate resources. Garry Barrett, Frances Krsinich and Moira Wilson focus on the youngest members of society, using benefit data to understand why some children are more likely than others to stay longer on welfare payments.
“Achieving Effective Outcomes in Youth Justice” is a large-scale, longitudinal evaluation conducted by the Crime and Justice Research Centre. Gabrielle Maxwell, Jeremy Robertson and Venezia Kingi discuss the extent to which the key goals underpinning the youth justice legislation – to keep young people out of court, out of institutions, and inside their communities wherever possible – are met by the youth justice system. Evaluation is also the theme of Paul Duignan’s paper, albeit more broadly considered, arguing for an enhanced capacity with greater sophistication, including the employment of appropriate models for Maori programmes. Martin Tolich addresses weaknesses in current paradigms for research that includes Maori participants, arguing that they “paralyse” Pakeha researchers.
A review of the literature on child prostitution by Miriam Saphira and Pam Oliver explores issues relating to scope, hazards, gender and indigenous peoples, and focuses on programmes for prevention and intervention. Their paper identifies poverty as one of the reasons put forward by children and young people for entering into prostitution. Staying with the youngest, the paper by Emma Davies, Beth Wood and Robert Stephens argues for the adoption of a programme, modelled on the English Sure Start initiative, designed around outcome-oriented early interventions for disadvantaged children.
Sarah Hillcoat-Nalltamby and A. Dharmalingam analyse survey data to explore how mid-life New Zealanders are “sandwiched” between the needs of their adult children and their older parents – both are living in separate household from the mid-lifers, but still receive substantial support, material and emotional, from the generation in between. Sarah Hillcoat-Nalltamby also reviews a book on older people’s social networks and support in Britain.
Technological developments have sparked policy concerns about both censorship and the misuse of drugs. David Wilson discusses the challenges to censorship enforcement created by the internet, DVDs and CD-ROM games, and suggests ways of addressing them. The use and manufacture of designer amphetamines and their rapid spread has tested legislation, policy and operational response – Chris Wilkins explores the issues, from classifying the substances to cleaning up the contaminated sites where they were made. Continuing with the theme of problematical leisure activities, Louise Dooley reviews Bruce Curtis’s book of readings on gambling in New Zealand.
I hope you find Issue 19 as interesting as I did.
Nicholas Pole
General Manager
Centre for Social Research and Evaluation
