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Desperate or Deviant? Causes of Criminal Behavior among TANF Recipients
Author(s) -
Monte Lindsay M.,
Lewis Dan A.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
poverty and public policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.206
H-Index - 4
ISSN - 1944-2858
DOI - 10.2202/1944-2858.1128
Subject(s) - receipt , welfare , welfare dependency , unemployment , welfare reform , legislation , demographic economics , aid to families with dependent children , argument (complex analysis) , economics , criminology , labour economics , political science , psychology , economic growth , law , medicine , accounting
As state welfare rolls declined significantly throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium, female criminality was on the rise. Under these circumstances, we examine the links between gender, welfare receipt, financial hardship and crime. We ask, did the 1996 welfare reform legislation affect the criminal behavior of current and former recipients? Does going off welfare increase the likelihood of committing an offense, as many critics of the reform argued that it would? Or is there more crime among women who remain on the rolls, as the culture of dependency argument suggests? Using the Illinois Families Study (IFS), a longitudinal study of individuals who were receiving welfare in Illinois in 1998, we explore trends in arrest by welfare receipt and employment. We find that financial hardship, in both the forms of unemployment and non‐receipt of welfare, is significantly associated with an increased hazard of criminal behavior.