NCJ Number
185941
Date Published
1999
Length
12 pages
Annotation
After examining the cutback in welfare services under the Federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRA), this chapter identifies some of the potential links between family violence and welfare policy.
Abstract
The PRA eliminates Aid to Families With Dependent Children, a 60-year-old safety net program that had entitled poor mothers and their children to financial assistance on the basis of need for as long as the need continued, until the youngest child reached age 18. The new law replaces that program with a time-limited Block Grant, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. This is essentially a funding stream to the States to operate their own programs of aid. The Federal law, however, puts conditions on States for the receipt of these funds. Among the most draconian of these requirements are arbitrary time limits on the receipt of aid, i.e., a 5-year lifetime limit for aid, regardless of need; a 2-year limit for finding full-time employment; and a requirement to be involved in a work experience program of 20 to 35 hours per week within 2 months of initial receipt of aid. It also requires mothers of infants as young as 3 months to work outside the home, prohibits aid to most immigrants, and allows the entire family to be cut from assistance rather than just withholding the mother's portion should the mother not comply with work regulations. One link between welfare policy and family violence is that ease of obtaining welfare makes it easier for an abused woman to escape from an abusive situation. Further, abuse not only may drive a woman to use welfare but also may keep her poor and on welfare as the abuser sabotages the victim's attempts to work and leave welfare. Also, the long-term effects of abuse may create the continuing need for welfare. Moreover, welfare child support reporting requirements can increase the risk of abuse; and prior child sexual abuse may lead to the need for welfare. In examining cause-and-effect interactions between family violence and welfare, it is necessary not only to show a frequency between family violence and the use of welfare, but also to determine which came first or how closely the two events are related in time. This chapter also outlines the content of the rest of the book. 19 references