Professional Affiliation

Assistant Professor, US Naval Academy

Wilson Center Project

Sreet Children of Moscow: A Culture in the Making

Project Summary

investigation of a marginalized community treated less frequently in the social sciences, namely, orphans, or more specifically, the street and institutionalized children of Russia. The study begins with the question of how institutionalized children grew to be neglected and ultimately rejected as a social group by their society. The study probes more deeply asking how adults and children with families relate to these institutionalized and street children and how the orphans internalize this often negative view of themselves and actually live out the role of outcasts in society. Findings thus far indicate that the Russian social system has created an orphan-type, a stereotype, by defining a prior the institutionalized child as a menace. Any scholars interested in the study of the development of crime, minimizing the growth of street gangs, education, and public policy, will be drawn to this project.