Steven Daniels | California State University, Bakersfield (original) (raw)

Papers by Steven Daniels

Annals of Emergency Medicine, Sep 1, 1990

Alabama emergency department personnel were surveyed in 1988 concerning elder abuse and Alabama's... more Alabama emergency department personnel were surveyed in 1988 concerning elder abuse and Alabama's mandatory reporting and protective services law. Most ED personnel did not understand the requirements of the law. While emergency physicians, registered nurses, and licensed practical nurses had seen cases of elder abuse in their careers, differences existed in their satisfaction with the disposition of cases reported to state authorities. Licensed practical nurses and physicians reported greater satisfaction with the response received; registered nurses were much less satisfied. However, all accepted responsibility for reporting elder abuse. ED registered nurses and emergency physicians were divided on the degree to which they could diagnose elder abuse, did not believe there were sufficient services to care for those who had been abused, and were unsure whether there were procedures for reporting cases of elder abuse. All ED personnel need to know that cases they report will result in protection of abuse victims.

Gerontologist, Jun 1, 1989

We evaluated physicians&amp;#39; responses to state elder abuse reporting statutes. Most ... more We evaluated physicians&amp;#39; responses to state elder abuse reporting statutes. Most statutes require reporting without providing for adequate investigation and service delivery. The Alabama Protective Services Act of 1976 is typical. Survey responses by Alabama physicians suggest that they have reservations about their ability to diagnose abuse, the operation of the law, and their willingness to report abuse. It appears that, in Alabama, mandatory reporting by itself is counterproductive because the statute fails to provide for adequate investigation and service delivery or to command knowledgeable compliance.

This article extends work begun by the author in 1993 on presidential decision-making in disaster... more This article extends work begun by the author in 1993 on presidential decision-making in disaster policy. The earlier work (Daniels and Clark-Daniels, 2002) focused on the Ford and Carter Administration and examined the effect of the competing goals of political responsiveness and comprehensive vulnerability management on gubernatorial and presidential decisions to seek and grant federal disaster assistance to states and counties. Both goals were present, but politics was also important. This article extends the research on vulnerability and responsiveness in presidential decisions backward to earlier presidential administrations and forward to the current presidential administration. Relying on material collected from multiple disaster databases, I examine the role of media sensitivity and demographic, social, economic, and political vulnerability on the presidential disaster decisions from 1953-2008. The current research should expand our understanding of presidential decision-mak...

JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 1988

Physicians Are Confused To the Editor.-In 1976, Alabama passed a statute (the Adult Protective Se... more Physicians Are Confused To the Editor.-In 1976, Alabama passed a statute (the Adult Protective Services Act) to prohibit the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of adults and mandate the reporting of mistreatment. Alabama focused its mandatory reportingrequirements on all "practitioners of the healing arts." To evaluate the efficacy of t,he statut~, t h~ Center for the Study of Aging at the University of Aiabama conducted in July 1987 a threewave mail survey of Alabama physir i m s t n assess their knowledge of the

Social Science Quarterly, 2019

Objective. This article assesses the evolution of U.S. opinion on same-sex marriage. Methods. The... more Objective. This article assesses the evolution of U.S. opinion on same-sex marriage. Methods. The analysis used multinomial regression on same-sex marriage questions from eight surveys with more than 34,000 respondents by the Pew Research Center and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) between 1988 and 2014. Multinomial logistic regression analysis tested five hypotheses about the effects of ideology, partisanship, religious intensity, contact with gays and lesbians, and education on support or opposition to same-sex marriage over three separate periods (1988, 2003-2013, 2013-2014). Results. Religious intensity, ideology, partisanship, contact with gays or lesbians, the Millennial generation, and being born again influenced opinion on same-sex marriage. Differences by region and religious affiliation declined in relative influence, whereas differences by religious and political values increased between 1988 and 2014. Support increased steadily from 1988. Conclusion. Opinion on same-sex marriage has shifted across all groups, but the increased gap in opinion presages continuing conflict. The laws and public opinion on same-sex marriage have evolved dramatically over the past 40 years (as epitomized by the approval of same-sex marriage by voters in Maryland 39 years after passing the first law to explicitly restrict marriage to men and women). Attitudes toward same-sex marriage reached majority status in 2012 (Daniels, 2013). On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court extended same-sex marriage to all U.S. states and territories. By July 2017, support for same-sex marriage reached 62 percent, although state-by-state support varied from 41 percent in Alabama to 80 percent in Massachusetts (Pew Research Center, 2017; Public Religion Research Institute, 2017). Factors Influencing Opinion on Same-Sex Marriage Researchers have identified several demographic factors that explain attitudes toward same-sex marriage. In most studies, males, older respondents, Protestants, Catholics, church attenders, those with less education, lower-income respondents, African Americans, Latinos, married respondents, those from rural areas, and southerners all had lower support for same-sex marriage and were more likely to vote for bans on same-sex marriage (

ABSTRACT This article examines the impact of scope of disaster and political responsiveness in pr... more ABSTRACT This article examines the impact of scope of disaster and political responsiveness in presidential decisions for the period from 1953 to 2009 (Eisenhower to Obama). Where my previous research focused on individual-level gubernatorial and presidential choice, this analysis explores the effects of scope of disaster and political responsiveness on the annual number of requests and declarations. Whereas earlier analyses traced the effects of the competing influences of vulnerability, disaster scope, and responsiveness on individual political choices, the current analysis assesses the cumulative impact of those influences on the annual number of requests and declarations and the percentage of requests granted. The article highlights several conclusions. First, the Stafford Act expanded federal coverage to all categories of disasters, added a significant range of individual types of assistance, and provided extensive funding for recovery planning. As a result, it changed the dynamics of the disaster decision process. Second, the impact of election year politics on disaster decisions increased over time. The effect of economic factors, especially scope of disaster declined. Third, the changes affected governors more than presidents, and the governors’ choices drove the presidents’ choices. The analysis highlights the increasingly expansive and political nature of the disaster decision-making process. The analysis also highlights the difficulty that the emergency management system faces in emphasizing mitigation and preparedness as intensively as response and recovery. The pressures that have driven the expansion of the federal role in disaster relief have made the adoption of a proactive focus a difficult long-term goal.

Home Healthcare Nurse: The Journal for the Home Care and Hospice Professional, 1990

This study examines the validity of interest group ratings of Congress during the period 1959 to ... more This study examines the validity of interest group ratings of Congress during the period 1959 to 1981. The ratings themselves have been controversial. Many members of Congress find them to be distorted and unrepresentative. The arguments for and against ratings are examined in a dimensional context. Most interest group ratings load very highly on a single liberal-conservative dimension. Contrary to the arguments of rating critics, both single- and general-issue groups produce ratings which are representative of the underlying dimension, suggesting that on broad questions of political philosophy, most ratings are valid measures.

On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that existing statutory and initiative measur... more On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that existing statutory and initiative measures that limited civil marriage to heterosexual couples violated the California Constitution's guarantee of equal protection (In Re Marriage Cases 2008). On November 4, 2008, California voters passed Proposition 8, a constitutional initiative invalidating In re Marriage Cases and stopping same-sex marriage in the state.

This examines the impact of divided government on the expansion of federal power. I hypothesize b... more This examines the impact of divided government on the expansion of federal power. I hypothesize based on the existing literature that unified government will generally expand federal power more than divided government. In addition, I hypothesize that the effect will vary by type of policy. I use the analytical model developed by Sean Kelly (1993) to analyze a modified version of the Mayhew (2005) dataset of significant legislation that excludes foreign, defense, and immigration policy, but includes emergency management policy.

ABSTRACT This article examines disaster decisions by governors and presidents between 1953 and 20... more ABSTRACT This article examines disaster decisions by governors and presidents between 1953 and 2005. Relying on presidential disaster decision materials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the All About Presidential Disaster Declarations website (University of Delaware, Public Entity Risk Institute [PERI], 2008), census data, material from six presidential libraries, climate data from the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration; and geological data from the U.S. Geological Survey, I assess the effect of competing models of vulnerability and politics on disaster choices by state governors and American presidents. I also evaluate changes during the administration of Jimmy Carter and after the passage of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act). The analysis confirms that President Carter may have believed that federal disaster assistance rewarded risky behavior by states and acted accordingly in responding swiftly and more negatively to disaster requests. I also confirm that the patterns of both gubernatorial and presidential decisions changed after 1989, becoming less vulnerability based and somewhat more political.

Political Science Teacher, 1990

The study of the politics of the Vietnam War raises some interesting dilemmas for both teachers a... more The study of the politics of the Vietnam War raises some interesting dilemmas for both teachers and students. Opinions differ about the importance of the war to the politics and history of the United States. Many books are available concerning the American involvement in the Vietnam war, but most accounts differ from book to book. The relevance of the Vietnam experience needs to be discussed in a broader perspective. Certainly, the Vietnam war was different than any war fought previously by the United States of America. Recently, a professor at a southern university defined war as having winners and losers (c.f. Emerson, 1976). She then asked her 150-student American government class to identify the winner of the Vietnam war. Because no one could provide an answer, her second question concerned the last time American troops were used in a foreign country. The answer the professor was expecting was the Christmas 1989 invasion of Panama. No one made the correct identification. The only student who hazarded a response suggested that the last use of troops was in Nicaragua! If students have difficulty remembering what happened a few months in the past, they are likely to conceive of the Vietnam war as ancient history. Yet, the war provides lessons that future decision makers need to learn. One dilemma for teachers is choice among subject matter. American policies are important, but other factors need examination as well. Should a combination of both American and Vietnamese politics (North and South) be considered? What about those who stayed home, protested, or went to Canada? The material can be overwhelming.

ABSTRACT This examines the impact of divided government on the expansion of federal power. I hypo... more ABSTRACT This examines the impact of divided government on the expansion of federal power. I hypothesize based on the existing literature that unified government will generally expand federal power more than divided government. In addition, I hypothesize that the effect will vary by type of policy. I use the analytical model developed by Sean Kelly to analyze a modified version of the Mayhew dataset of significant legislation that excludes foreign, defense, and immigration policy, but includes emergency management policy. I control for how early in the administration a statute passes and whether the public mood supported innovation (the period from 1961 to 1976). Across all statutes, Mayhew’s original conclusions extended to 2008 continue to hold. No significant difference appears in the passage of significant legislation during divided and unified governments. The only significant variable was the increase in legislation during Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford. Thus, overall, neither unified nor divided government promotes the expansion of federal power. Federal power has expanded during both types of government. When controlling for type of policy, unified government appears to be significant, but only for regulatory policy during the non-activist period of the study.

Annals of Emergency Medicine, Sep 1, 1990

Gerontologist, Jun 1, 1989

JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 1988

Social Science Quarterly, 2019

Home Healthcare Nurse: The Journal for the Home Care and Hospice Professional, 1990

Political Science Teacher, 1990