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99 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 643 (2008-2009)
The Criminalization of Poverty

handle is hein.journals/jclc99 and id is 649 raw text is: 0091-4169/09/9903-0643 THE JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINOLOGY Vol. 99, No. 3 Copyright 0 2009 by Northwestern University, School of Law Printed in U.SA. CRIMINAL LAW THE CRIMINALIZATION OF POVERTY KAARYN GUSTAFSON* The welfare system and the criminal justice system in the United States are becoming ever more tightly interwoven. Scholars, however, have not yet examined the processes involved in these developments and what these developments mean for both the welfare system and for criminal jurisprudence. Many people, including welfare recipients, treat the welfare and criminal justice systems as analytically distinct. As a practical matter, however, the systems now work in tandem. This Article maps the criminalization of welfare. First, this Article describes the social construction of welfare fraud, tracing how welfare queens and welfare cheating came to be the targets of much governmental attention and resources. The Article then describes the various ways that criminal justice goals and strategies have become embedded in the welfare system, as well as the ways that the welfare system has become a tool of law enforcement. Next, the Article examines the treatment of welfare recipients in the courts, where the poor have been relegated to an inferior status of rights-bearing citizenship, a status on par with parolees and probationers. In the end, the Article encourages more careful policy analysis of these criminalizing practices, proposes a de-coupling of the economic security and crime control functions of the state, and offers recommendations for ensuring the constitutional rights of welfare recipients. Specifically, administrative and criminal procedures must adapt to the transformations * Associate Professor, University of Connecticut School of Law. Many thanks to the following people for their comments and criticisms: Mario Barnes, Jon Bauer, Frank Rudy Cooper, Zanita Fenton, Todd Femow, Michael Fischl, Alexandra Lahav, Leslie Levin, Eric Miller, Len Orland, and Jim Stark. Even more thanks to several research assistants: Sri Chalasani, Elizabeth Martinez, and Tovah Ross. Sincere thanks also to research librarian Lee Sims. This Article benefited from discussion at the Association of American Law Schools 2008 Annual Meeting's Workshop on Gender and Class, and from generous comments from my colleagues during a University of Connecticut Law Faculty Workshop.

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