Volume 3 - Issue 1 - 1999

Richard K. Caputo

Laurie Wermuth

Mark Beaulieu and Steven F. Messner

Donna Hardina

"Becoming Poor and Using Public Assistance Programs"

Richard K. Caputo

Barry University

Abstract: Using logistic regression analysis on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study found that social psychological attributes failed to affect the likelihood of becoming poor and of using public assistance programs beyond that of sociodemographic characteristics. The number of years respondents lived in poverty was the best predictor of moving from above poverty in one year to below poverty the following year, while the number of years respondents lived in families that received public assistance was the best predictor of moving from self-support to entering into a public assistance program from one year to the next. Implications regarding the contemporary shift in the philosophy of social welfare from income maintenance to self-support are discussed.

Laurie Wermuth

California State University, Chico

Abstract: Poverty and substance abuse increase the likelihood that individuals will engage in behaviors that transmit the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. The author presents descriptive data from 75 women respondents with substance abuse histories from rural northern California. Respondents were mostly poor and white (75%), nearly half had less than a high school diploma, and a large majority were unemployed and receiving public assistance. Methamphetamine was the drug regularly used by the highest number of women in the study (60 out of 75), with an average period of regular use of 6 years. Descriptive data illustrate the extent of the respondents' sexual and drug use risk behaviors for HIV transmission. A background review presents a profile of AIDS risk behaviors involved in drug use subcultures. The author suggests that drug treatment opportunities be expanded for women and men, along with grassroots organizing and creative outreach strategies to enhance prevention.

Mark Beaulieu

University at Albany, SUNY

and

Steven F. Messner

University at Albany, SUNY

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of offender's and victim's race and gender on legal outcomes for defendants initially charged with first degree murder. Drawing upon past theorizing and research, we hypothesize that Black offenders and killers of non-Blacks will be subjected to more severe legal sanctioning, and that female offenders and killers of males will receive less severe sanctioning. We also predict that the effects of status characteristics on legal outcomes will be attenuated in the subsample of cases that go to trial because of formal guidelines governing trial procedures. Using data from prosecutor's files for a sample of 33 U. S. counties, these hypotheses are tested for three legal outcomes: first degree murder conviction, conviction on a lesser charge, and no conviction. The results of ordinal logistic regression offered mixed support for our hypotheses. Both race and gender exhibit some of the expected effects on legal outcomes, but contrary to predictions, status effects are not attenuated in trial cases.

Donna Hardina

California State University, Fresno

Abstract: Most evaluations of welfare reform demonstration projects have examined the impact of new policies or programs on the work participation of single mothers. Little research on two-parent, AFDC families has been conducted. In this paper, the results of a welfare policy change are described. The author interviewed 500 primary wage earners in AFDC-UP households who participated in an evaluation of the impact of the termination of the "100 hour rule" on work. Employment-related barriers to work (wage rates and types of jobs or hours of work available to respondents) which may have contributed to the effects of the intervention are also examined.