Research Proposal on "Social Welfare State and Juvenile"

Research Proposal 16 pages (4940 words) Sources: 16 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Yet as a nation, we tolerate the highest child poverty rate of any nation in the developed world" (p. 28).

Likewise, these topsy-turvy priorities extend to how educators are paid and regarded compared to other professionals in the United States. In this regard, Allen adds that, "As a nation, people to whom we entrust our children, are paid less, are less regulated, and perhaps most significantly, are less respected in their fields than other professionals and nonprofessionals alike" (2007, p. 28). With many teachers in America struggling to make it from paycheck to paycheck, the results of these misguided economic priorities have included many teachers searching for greener career fields elsewhere and many children being left behind despite the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (Allen, 2007).

Federal mandates for social programs for housing, Social Security, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Medicaid, food stamps, and Supplemental Security Income programs together with state and local initiatives for women, children and infants (WIC) have all been cited as characteristic of a social welfare state with the intended outcome being reduced poverty and improved social and employment opportunities that will reduce the need for young people to resort to crime in the first place (Flammang, 1997). There are few Americans who would likely argue with the need to feed hungry infants, children and women, but some critics charge that the social welfare system only perpetuates reliance on government assistance without providing any incentive for recipients to change their lives for the better.

Indeed, not everyone is of a like mind when it comes to the provision of these social services, though, because the efforts thus far have met with mixed results, with some initiatives proving dismal failures and others where the reforms have actually done more harm than good in others (Flamming, 1997). As a result, many Americans view current efforts to reduce juvenile crime by simply throwing more money after bad at the problem as unwarranted, and for good reason. For instance, according to Weatherburn and Lind (2000), "In some quarters, however, there is a view that direct Government efforts to reduce poverty and unemployment are doomed to failure. American expenditure on such programs nearly doubled in real terms between 1950 and 1980 but, despite this, from the early 1970s onwards poverty levels in the United States began to rise" (p. 127). These perplexing outcomes fly directly in the face of common sense, but these unintended and unexpected outcomes have nevertheless continued to adversely affect the poor despite governmental efforts at all levels to reduce poverty and the conditions that contribute to it (Weatherburn & Lind, 2000).

These recent trends have been matched by an increasingly aggressive stance by the law enforcement community against youthful offenders. According to Brown (2009), "Instead of indeterminate sentencing and job training, the U.S. criminal justice system is now oriented toward a war on drugs, stiffer sentences, mandatory minimums, and an overall punitive orientation" (p. 103). These trends have also been matched by changesin the American juvenile justice system that are characterized by so-called "get-tough," "zero-tolerance" and "accountability" policies in primary and secondary educational institutions (Brown, 2009). In fact, Scott and Steinberg (2008) suggest that the American justice system now "operates on the principle of 'adult time for adult crime'" and "seems to many to take too little note of age and immaturity in calculating criminal punishment" (p. 16). This focus on punishment vs. rehabilitation within the juvenile justice system represents a sea change in direction compared to years past. These changes have "transformed the juvenile court from a nominally rehabilitative social welfare agency into a scaled-down, second-class criminal court for young people" (Brown, 2009, p. 103). In addition, studies have shown that the juvenile justice system continues to adjudicate and incarcerate an inordinate number of minorities youths compared to their white mainstream counterparts (Brown, 2009).

Indeed, Cooper (2009) reports that today's social welfare state is similar to England during the 1830s for one fundamental reason: the fact that America's impoverished people are simply forgotten by mainstream society, and are viewed as being as inferior second class because of their reliance on social welfare, especially food stamps and subsidized housing. In the Land of Opportunity, the theory goes, anyone and everyone can and should get a job -- even a minimum wage job -- and work themselves into a better life and those that fail to do so and not worthy of the American Dream. According to Cooper, although the poor in the United States are provided with social workers, subsidized housing, healthcare services and food stamps, among other social services, they remain invisible, ignored and shunned by more affluent Americans. In this regard Cooper also notes that, "America today is in at least one way like the England of the 1830s: most of us see the underclass as a seething, abstract mob" (2009, p. 49).

When individual faces are placed on this "seething, abstract mob," though, a far different picture quickly emerges that indicates that not all young people who are subjected to the conditions of a social welfare state necessarily turn to crime or self-destructive behaviors, and many, perhaps the majority, manage to overcome these constraints to become self-actualized adults with meaningful employment. For far too many young people, though, the resilience to resist these powerful social forces during a critically formative period in their lives compels them to experiment with behaviors that ultimately land them in the hands of the local constabulary as juvenile delinquents. In this regard, Span (2008) reports that, "Juvenile delinquency is defined as the antisocial behavior of a minor, not more than 18 years of age, which is in violation of the general welfare of people in a larger society" (p. 108). Because the human and economic costs that are associated with violent and property crimes committed by juvenile offenders are enormous, it is not surprising that the problem has become the focus of nationwide attention in recent years. As Mincey and Maldonado (2008) report, "Juvenile delinquency and recidivism in America are major issues being debated by federal, state, and local governments. Criminologists and lawmakers consider what can be done to impart intervention and prevention measures" (p. 9).

Although the relationship between youth crime and a social welfare state is well documented, the precise relationship between population size and local juvenile crime rates remains less clear (Carcach & Huntley, 2002). According to Carcach and Huntley, "In the United States, victimization rates increase with population size, but only for total populations up to about 25,000. Population size affects juvenile crime rates only for populations of up to about 4,000 juveniles" (p. 3). Some researchers have examined the correlation between poverty and child neglect and juvenile crime by using reports to law enforcement authorities based on postal codes (Weatherburn & Lind, 2006). The variables developed for the Weatherburn and Lind (2006) study that were analyzed using a regression analysis were as follows:

Neglect: the number of children with at least one notification during the 5-year period 1 July 1986 to 30 June 1991 for either neglect or emotional abuse (but not for physical or sexual abuse), divided by the number of 0- to 15-year-olds resident in the postcode at the 1991 census;

Delinquency: the number of juveniles with at least one court appearance during the 5-year period 1 July 1990 to 30 June 1995 where the most serious offence was a property or violent offence, divided by the number of 10- to 17-year-olds resident in the postcode at the 1991 census;

Poverty: households with an annual income of less than $16,000, as a proportion of all households at the 1991 census;

Geographic mobility: families who had a different address 5 years earlier, as a proportion of all families at the 1991 census;

Ethnic heterogeneity: persons who arrived in Australia less than 5 years previously, and who do not speak English well, as a proportion of all persons at the 1991 census (p. 385).

These researchers found that poverty was the strongest predictor of neglect, but was less significant in predicting involvement in juvenile crime. Based on their overall findings, Weatherburn and Lind conclude that, "It is possible that poverty, geographic mobility, ethnic heterogeneity and poor parenting combine to produce both low levels of collective efficacy and, independently, high levels of crime" (2009, p. 386). Likewise, other researchers have examined the relationship between poverty and juvenile crime through literature reviews (Barton & Watkins, 1997), case studies (Bogenschneider & Gross, 2004) and longitudinal studies (Mann & Reynolds, 2006). This body of secondary resources provides a robust source of data that can be mined for fresh insights concerning the relationship between a welfare state and juvenile crime.

Because there are such a diverse range of factors that influence juvenile crime, though, more research is needed to establish the connection between population size and youth crime rates, particularly during periods of rapid demographic change. In this regard, Carcach and Huntley conclude that, "The relationship between population size… READ MORE

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