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The ‘Criminalization’ of Social Security Law: Towards a Punitive Welfare State?
Author(s) -
Larkin Philip M.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of law and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.263
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1467-6478
pISSN - 0263-323X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2007.00394.x
Subject(s) - punitive damages , social security act , punishment (psychology) , social security , welfare , criminalization , poverty , context (archaeology) , legislature , state (computer science) , public economics , law and economics , political science , law , criminology , sociology , economics , social psychology , psychology , paleontology , algorithm , computer science , biology
The aim of this article is to place certain recent legislative reforms in the field of social security within the context of the overall development of the welfare state, and examine to what extent a certain trend is discernable: namely, whether eligibility for various welfare benefits is becoming so contingent on socially acceptable behaviour as to make the welfare system less a means for the relief of poverty, its ostensible sole purpose, and more akin to an instrument of education, even punishment, for those who have recourse to social security benefits.