1st Edition

On Record Files and Dossiers in American Life

By Stanton Wheeler Copyright 1976

    On Record provides descriptive accounts of record-keeping in a variety of important organizations: schools and universities; consumer credit agencies, general business organizations, and life insurance companies; military and security agencies; the Census Bureau and the Social Security Administration; public welfare agencies, juvenile courts, and mental hospitals. It also examines the legal status of records.

    The authors address questions such as: Who determines what records are kept? Who has access to the records? To what extent do the records follow an individual? What are some of the dangers and pitfalls in record-keeping? Throughout the volume, the authors show a concern for an appropriate balance between the need for information about people and protection against undue invasions of privacy. The introduction of electronic databases since the original publication of this book makes the issues raised in this seminal collection even more timely.

    Contents

    Acknowledgments

    The Contributors

    I. Introduction
    1. Problems and Issues in Record-Keeping
    Stanton Wheeler
    The Scope of This Volume
    Themes and Variations in Record-Keeping
    The Policy Issues


    II. Educational Institutions
    2. Record-Keeping in Elementary and Secondary Schools
    David A. Goslin and Nancy Bordier
    American Education and Educational Records
    The Historical Development of Record-Keeping Procedures
    Current Practices
    Trends and Future Prospects
    Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues


    3. The Dossier in Colleges and Universities
    Burton R. Clark
    The Scope of Record-Keeping
    The Primary Central Records
    The Varieties of Location and Style
    The Varieties of Confidence
    Use of the Final Record after College
    The Problem of Anticipation


    4. Information-Flow within the Professions: Some Selective
    Comparisons of Law, Medicine, and Nursing
    Rodolfo Alvarez and Wilbert E. Moore
    The Profession of Medicine
    The Professions of Law and Nursing: General Comparisons to Medicine
    General Comparisons among the Professions Summary


    III. Economic Institutions
    5. The Dossier in Consumer Credit
    James Rule, David Caplovitz, and Pierce Barker
    How Credit Reporting Works
    How Should Credit Reporting Work?
    Future Trends and Issues


    6. Record-Keeping and Corporate Employees
    Ivar Berg and James Salvate
    Sources of Information on Managers
    Records on Nonmanagerial Personnel
    Disclosure of Information on Employees
    Implications and Issues in the Use of Corporate Dossiers
    Conclusions


    7. Personal Information in Insurance Files
    H. Laurence Ross
    Life Insurance Underwriting
    Personal Information in Other Types of Insurance


    IV. Governmental Institutions
    8. Government Records: The Census Bureau and the Social
    Security Administration
    Joseph Steinberg
    Federal Data Collection
    The Bureau of the Census
    The Social Security Administration
    Government Statistics—A Coordinated System


    9. The Dossier in Military Organization
    Roger W. Little
    Forms of Military Dossiers
    Disposition of Records
    Issues and Implications


    10. Security Investigations
    Jesse Orlansky
    Federal Personnel Clearance Programs
    The Investigative Procedure
    Denial of Clearance
    Privacy of Information in Dossiers
    Appendixes


    V. Welfare Institutions
    11. Record-Keeping and the Intake Process in a Public Welfare Agency
    Don H. Zimmerman
    The Setting and Its Tasks
    Reception
    The Intake Investigation
    Documents as Objective and Factual Accounts
    Concluding Remarks


    12. Records in the Juvenile Court
    Edwin M. Lemert
    Purposes of Juvenile Court Records
    Police and Juvenile Delinquency Records
    Making and Using Juvenile Court Records
    Consequences of Juvenile Court Records
    Dossiers and the "Law Explosion"


    13. Case Records in the Mental Hospital
    Kai T. Erikson and Daniel E. Gilbertson
    Record-Processing
    The Patient
    Issues of Confidentiality


    VI. The Law
    14. Legal Control of the Dossier
    Abraham S. Goldstein
    The Direct Inquiry: Questions to A by B
    The Indirect Inquiry: Getting Information from B about A
    Getting Information about A from the Government
    Striking the Balance


    Index

    Biography

    Stanton Wheeler