Charlie Kaplan



Research Professor and Associate Dean of Research
Email: cdkaplan@uh.edu
Room: 320 Social Work Building
Phone: 713-743-8108
Current Curriculum Vitae

Personal Statement:

The discipline of social work stands in critical position in our globalized world. Social work research will play a leading role in the future in the advancement of knowledge, development of policy, design of interventions and the implementation of comprehensive services for vulnerable populations affected by today’s massive social changes. Social work is experienced in working closely with multiple disciplines including medicine, law, psychology, sociology, policy science and urban and economic development. Social work’s future leadership role, formed by its unique social scientific perspective, will inspire multi-disciplinary efforts to deliver basic and applied research that informs social change and community advancement. My professional commitment is to contribute to this process through the organization of multidisciplinary research clusters in which social work faculty and graduate students can exert leadership in obtaining research grants, write high-impact publications and offer their knowledge and expertise in consultations to governments, business and community-based organizations.

Education:

1973 Ph.D. in Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles
1968 M.A. in Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles
1966 B.A. with Honors in Political Science, Tulane University

Areas of Specialization:

  • The organization of social work research
  • Social science research design and methodology
  • Behavioral health policy-oriented reserarch

Research Interests:

  • Social networks, social environments and behavioral health in vulnerable infant, children and adolescent populations
  • Social capital
  • Background and foreground factors in social policy development
  • Drug abuse prevention, social epidemiology and treatment
  • Gangs and violent behavior
  • AIDS/HIV risk behavior and environments
  • Social diagnosis and assessment of social behavioral health outcomes

Selected Publications:

Alper, K. R., Lotsof, H. S., & Kaplan, C. D. (2008). The ibogaine medical subculture. Journal of Ethnopharmacology.115: 9-24.

Valdez, A., Neaigus, A. & Kaplan, C.D. (2008). The influence of family and peer risk networks on drug use practices and other risks among Mexican American non-injecting heroin users. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. 37(1):79-107.

Valdez, A., Kaplan, C. D., & Curtis, R. L. Jr. (2007). Aggressive crime, alcohol and
drug use, and concentrated poverty in 24 U.S. urban areas. The American
Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 33, 595-603.

Valdez, A., Kaplan, C. D., and Cepeda, A. (2006). The drugs-violence nexus among Mexican American gang members. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. 38(2): 109-122.

Snelders S, Kaplan, C. & Pieters, A. (2006) On cannabis, chloral hydrate, and career cycles of psychotropic drugs in medicine. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 80(1): 95-114.

Cervantes R.C, Duenas N, Valdez A, & Kaplan C. (2006) Measuring violence risk and outcomes among Mexican-American adolescent females. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 21(1): 24-41.

Dupont, H., Kaplan, C. D., Verbraek, H., Bram, R. & van de Wijngaart, G. (2005) Killing Time: Drug and alcohol problems among asylum seekers in the Netherlands. International Journal of Drug Policy.16: 27-36.

Drukker, M., Kaplan, C. & Van Os, J. (2005) Residential instability in socioeconomically deprived neighbourhoods, good or bad?" Health Place 11 (June): 121-129.

Ayuku, D. O., Kaplan, C. D., Baars, H. M. J., & deVries, M. W. (2004). Characteristics and personal social networks of the "on" the street, "of" the street, shelter and school children in Eldoret, Kenya, International Social Work 47(3):293-311

Kaplan, C. & Broekaert, E. (2003) An introduction to research on the social impact of the therapeutic community for addiction. International Journal of Social Welfare 12 (3): 204-210.

Drukker, M., Kaplan, C., Feron, F. & van Os, J. (2003) Children’s health-related quality of life, neighborhood socio-economic deprivation and social capital: A contextual analysis. Social Science & Medicine 57: 825-841.

Kaplan, C. (2001) Emergent young adult lifestyles and drug use patterns in a runaway world. International Journal of Drug Policy 12: 415-420.

Kaplan, C. D., Broekaert, E. et al. (2001). Improving social psychiatric treatment in residential programmes for emerging dependence groups in Europe: cross-border networking, methodological innovations and substantive discoveries. International Journal of Social Welfare 10(2): 127-133.

Kaplan, C. and Verbraeck, H (2001) Where have all the fieldnotes gone? The changing nature and politics of drugs ethnography in the Netherlands. Addiction Research & Theory 9(4): 299-323.

Valdez, A., Kaplan, C. D. and Codina, E. (2000) Psychopathy among Mexican American Gang Members: A comparative study. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 44(1): 46-58.

Kaplan, C. (1999) Drug policy and the policy science challenge. International Journal of Social Welfare 8:308-314.

Franken, I. H. A. & Kaplan, C. D. (1997) Risk contexts and risk behaviors in the Euregion Maas-Rhein: The Boule de Neige intervention for AIDS prevention among drug users, AIDS Prevention and Education. 9(2): 161-180.

Kaplan, C. D. & Leuw, E. (1996) A tale of two cities: drug policy instruments and city networks in the European Union, European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research. 4(1): 74-89.