Journal Article

The Color of Welfare Sanctioning: Exploring the Individual and Contextual Roles of Race on TANF Case Closures and Benefit Reductions

Monnat, Shannon M.

2010

Overview

This article investigates the individual and contextual roles of race on welfare sanctions: benefit cuts for failing to comply with work or other behavioral requirements under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Using six years of federal administrative data, I advance previous welfare research by providing a nationally representative analysis of participant-, county-, and state-level predictors of welfare sanctioning. Using theories of racial classification, racialized social systems, and racial threat as guiding frameworks, I find that black and Latina women are at a greater risk of being sanctioned than white women. Further, although odds of a sanction are slightly reduced for black women living in counties with greater percentages of blacks, the opposite holds for Latinas, who are at an increased risk of being sanctioned in counties with greater percentages of Latinos.

• Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Inc,Wiley Subscription Services,Wiley,Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subject: African Americans / African Americans - education / African Americans - ethnology / African Americans - history / African Americans - legislation & jurisprudence / African Americans - psychology / Benefits / Black people / Black women / Blacks / Classification / Counties / Economic aid / Economic sanctions / Employment / Ethnic groups / Ethnicity / Family - ethnology / Family - history / Family - psychology / Females / Government programmes / Hispanic Americans / Hispanic Americans - education / Hispanic Americans - ethnology / Hispanic Americans - history / Hispanic Americans - legislation & jurisprudence / Hispanic Americans - psychology / Hispanics / History, 20th Century / History, 21st Century / Humans / Job requirements / Latin American Cultural Groups / Minorities / Modeling / Public Assistance - economics / Public Assistance - history / Public Assistance - legislation & jurisprudence / Public assistance programs / Public welfare / Race / Race Relations - history / Race Relations - legislation & jurisprudence / Race Relations - psychology / Risk / Roles / Sanctions / Social policy / Social problems and social policy. Social work / Social research / Social systems / Social Welfare - economics / Social Welfare - ethnology / Social Welfare - history / Social Welfare - legislation & jurisprudence / Social Welfare - psychology / Socioeconomic Factors - history / Sociology / Temporary Assistance for Needy Families / Threat / U.S.A / Welfare / Welfare criteria / Welfare policy / Welfare Recipients / Welfare reform / Welfare Services / Welfare state / White people / Women / Women - education / Women - history / Women - psychology / Women's Health - ethnology / Women's Health - history / Women's Rights - economics / Women's Rights - education / Women's Rights - history / Women's Rights - legislation & jurisprudence / Work / Working women