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Full-Text Articles in Social Work

The Limits Of Paternalism: A Case Study Of Welfare Reform In Wisconsin, Thomas S. Moore, Swarnjit S. Arora Sep 2009

The Limits Of Paternalism: A Case Study Of Welfare Reform In Wisconsin, Thomas S. Moore, Swarnjit S. Arora

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper uses a pooled sample constructed from the Food Stamp Quality Control data for the fiscal years 1993 to 2006 to assess the effects of welfare reform upon the employment, earnings, income, and poverty trends among poor, single-mother families, both in Wisconsin and nationwide. It finds that the employment and earnings gains of the Wisconsin families exceed those of comparable families nationwide. However, there has been no significant change in the average income of the Wisconsin families, and the number of extremely poor families has increased more rapidly in Wisconsin than in the country as a whole. These findings …


Rescuing Children And Punishing Poor Families: Housing Related Decisions, Corey Shdaimah Sep 2009

Rescuing Children And Punishing Poor Families: Housing Related Decisions, Corey Shdaimah

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Child welfare policy is not self implementing; an understanding of child welfare policy must therefore include the decision making practices by those whom Michael Lipsky (1980) has called "streetlevel bureaucrats." This article reports data from a qualitative study exploring perceptions of child welfare professionals about housing-related child welfare decisions. Interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 18 child welfare lawyers, judges, and masters level social workers from a large city in the mid-Atlantic U.S. All agreed that there is insufficient affordable adequate housing. They held conflicting views, however, on: 1) the standard for adequate housing in the absence of …


Institutions And Savings In Low-Income Households, Jami Curley, Fred Ssewamala, Michael Sherraden Sep 2009

Institutions And Savings In Low-Income Households, Jami Curley, Fred Ssewamala, Michael Sherraden

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper examines the influence of structured savings program arrangements on the saving performance of low-income households in individual development accounts (IDAs). Data are drawn from the American Dream Demonstration (1997-2004), which looked at the saving performance of low-income households in matched savings accounts across the United States. Hierarchical multivariate regression is used to identify which specific structural program arrangements are important in influencing the saving performance of low-income families. Findings suggest that overall, structured program arrangements, including financial education, peer mentoring groups and saving targets are important in influencing people's saving performance-including low-income families.


Building Their Readiness For Economic "Freedom": The New Poor Law And Emancipation, Anne O'Connell Jun 2009

Building Their Readiness For Economic "Freedom": The New Poor Law And Emancipation, Anne O'Connell

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Contemporary studies that track the new racialization of poverty in Canada require an historical account. The history we invoke in North America is often borrowed from the British poor laws, a literature that is severed from its counterpart: the histories of racial slavery, racial thinking, White bourgeois power and the making of White settler societies. The effects of severing the history of poor relief from racial classifications and racism(s) are far reaching. Systems of oppression come to be seen as separate structures in which the New Poor Law appears as a domestic policy in Britain unrelated to racial thinking and …


Welcome To The Neighborhood: Does Where You Live Affect The Use Of Nutrition, Health, And Welfare Programs?, Molly De Marco, Allison C. De Marco Mar 2009

Welcome To The Neighborhood: Does Where You Live Affect The Use Of Nutrition, Health, And Welfare Programs?, Molly De Marco, Allison C. De Marco

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Despite the recent upsurge in neighborhood effects research, few studies have examined the impact of neighborhood characteristics on the use of nutrition, health, and welfare programs. To explore these issues, this study used data from Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study, a longitudinal dataset comprised of low-income neighborhoods in Boston, San Antonio, and Chicago (n=1,712). Using hierarchical linear models, the results indicated that both individual (education, employment, and marriage) and perceived neighborhood disorder factors were related to social service use.