COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Federal welfare reform may end up burdening the country's already-stressed juvenile justice system, according to an expert at Ohio State University.
Katherine Hunt Federle, director of Ohio State's Justice for Children Project, said reforms that force people from the welfare rolls will have a disproportionate effect on children because they make up the majority of welfare beneficiaries.
Welfare benefit reductions are expected to place an additional 1.2 million children below the poverty line, said Federle, who is also an associate professor of law at Ohio State.
"Given the strong link between poverty and the juvenile court, it seems inevitable that the problems of child poverty will become the problems of the juvenile court system," she said. "We are essentially just moving the problem from welfare to the juvenile courts."
Federle discussed the effect welfare reform will have on the juvenile justice system during a symposium held recently at Ohio State on welfare reform and children.
The federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, signed into law by President Clinton in 1996, was designed to radically reform the welfare system. It gave the states power to force people off welfare and into jobs.
In passing welfare reform, congressional supporters emphasized themes of personal responsibility and adult accountability, and the belief that many beneficiaries were receiving benefits with no incentive to work, according to Federle.
"But what has been curiously absent from the debate is a discussion of the implications and consequences of welfare reform for children," she said. "That's surprising given the fact that children comprised two-thirds of all welfare beneficiaries prior to the implementation of the welfare reform act."
Federle said the effects of welfare reform on children are likely to show up in increased caseloads for the juvenile justice system. For example, several studies have suggested direct links between child poverty and juvenile delinquency.
Poor children are more likely to suffer from emotional and behavioral problems that may result in aggression and fighting, even when they have only experienced short-term poverty. Other studies have shown that poor children are more likely to be criminal victims.
Poor children also suffer in school. They are twice as likely as nonpoor children to drop out of school, repeat a grade or be expelled. In addition, poor children may experience a variety of other problems, such as homelessness, that may result in juvenile court intervention. For example, one study in New York City found that one in ten poor children had spent time in homeless shelters.
Some people have argued that welfare reductions won't increase poverty for children because their parents will now have jobs. However, Federle said most jobs available to welfare recipients don't pay enough to lift them out of poverty. At the time of the welfare act's passage, 69 percent of poor children lived in families where someone was already employed.
"Even at a time of strong economic growth, the number of children in working poor families increased from 4.3 million in 1989 to 5.7 million in 1996," she said.
The full effects of welfare reform on children won't be seen for at least another two and a half years, Federle said. That's when some beneficiaries will reach the new lifetime benefits limit of five years. "Many people who have been unable to find jobs with living wages will be thrown off the welfare rolls at that time because they will have reached the allowable limit on benefits," she said.
The economy will also play a role in how children fare under welfare reform, according to Federle. The booming economy of the past decade has softened some of the negative effects of the welfare act, but the situation will worsen if the economy falters.
"The net result of welfare reform is that we are shifting many of the problems associated with poverty to the juvenile justice system," Federle said. "In the long run, it will cost more to deal with children in juvenile courts than it ever did in the welfare system."
Written by Jeff Grabmeier, 614-292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu