Cheating welfare : public assistance and the criminalization of poverty / Kaaryn S. Gustafson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gustafson, Kaaryn S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Welfare fraud--United States.

Welfare fraud.

Public welfare--California--Case studies.

Public welfare.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (240 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Over the last three decades, welfare policies have been informed by popular beliefs that welfare fraud is rampant. As a result, welfare policies have become more punitive and the boundaries between the welfare system and the criminal justice system have blurred—so much so that in some locales prosecution caseloads for welfare fraud exceed welfare caseloads. In reality, some recipients manipulate the welfare system for their own ends, others are gravely hurt by punitive policies, and still others fall somewhere in between. In Cheating Welfare, Kaaryn S. Gustafson endeavors to clear up these gray areas by providing insights into the history, social construction, and lived experience of welfare. She shows why cheating is all but inevitable—not because poor people are immoral, but because ordinary individuals navigating complex systems of rules are likely to become entangled despite their best efforts. Through an examination of the construction of the crime we know as welfare fraud, which she bases on in-depth interviews with welfare recipients in Northern California, Gustafson challenges readers to question their assumptions about welfare policies, welfare recipients, and crime control in the United States.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

1. Introduction

2. Reconstructing Social Ills

3. The Criminalization of Poverty

4. A Glimpse at the Interviewees

5. Living within and without the Rules

6. Engaging with Rules and Negotiating Compliance

7. Contextualizing Criminality, Noncompliance, and Resistance

8. Cheating Ourselves

Appendix A: Critical Methodology

Appendix B: Interview Schedule

Works Cited

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8147-3339-5

OCLC:

744333846