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15 Just. Q. 273 (1998)
Welfare and Property Crime

handle is hein.journals/jquart15 and id is 283 raw text is: WELFARE AND PROPERTY CRIME. LANCE HANNON JAMES DEFRONZO University of Connecticut In 1996 the U.S. federal government enacted a welfare reform bill aimed at reducing public assistance to the poor. This legislation may have implica- tions for future levels of property crime. In this study we examine whether differences in levels of AFDC assistance and rates of welfare participation among 406 large metropolitan counties affected variation in burglary, lar- ceny, and motor vehicle theft. Regression analyses controlled for the poten- tial effects of family structure, divorce, unemployment, and a number of other variables. The results confirmed links between welfare and property crime suggested by strain, social support, and a version of social disorgani- zation theory. Both monetary assistance levels and participation rates were associated negatively with all property crimes. Many Americans believe that government largesse has created a morally defective welfare subculture. Those who hold this view argue that excessive welfare generosity contributes to high crime rates by undermining individual responsibility. Some claim that welfare teaches the wrong lesson: the poor are entitled to a certain level of material goods (Gilder 1981). Many writers and politicians cite the paradox of the sixties as evidence: crime rates soared while the war on poverty was supposedly being won (J.Q. Wilson 1975; see Block et al. 1987 for a thorough critique). In his campaign for governor of Florida, for example, Jeb Bush stated: The accumulated evidence of the last thirty years is conclu- sive. Welfare does not prevent crime. Welfare causes crime (Bush 1994:13). Robert Rector (1992), senior policy analyst for the Heritage Founda- tion, believes that welfare increases behavioral poverty, a term that includes criminal activity as a defining characteristic. He also claims that welfare leads to higher crime rates by legitimating fail- ure and devaluing the traditional two-parent family: The problem with the welfare state is not the level of spending, it is that nearly all of this expenditure actively * The data and tabulations used in this paper were made availabe in part by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. JUSTICE QUARTERLY, Vol. 15 No. 2, June 1998 © 1998 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences

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