14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new scientific study, published in the June issue of the scientific journal American Sociological Review, a publication of the American Sociological Association, the African American population in the United States is more likely than the White population to experience the sanctions of the welfare system. The multi-pronged analysis was set to determine the exact reasons behind this state of affairs, and also to better understand why Blacks are more prone to having negative experiences with the system than other races.
“Welfare sanctions should be imposed in response to client behavior in both law and principle, yet this research indicates that in practice, sanctions are often used in response to client characteristics. This study provides powerful evidence that race and stereotype-consistent traits interact to shape the allocation of punishment at the frontlines of welfare reform,” explained Sanford F. Schram, Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research social theory and policy professor. The sociologist was also the leader of the research team behind the study.
The new investigation, which combined data from the Florida Welfare Transition program and also from experimental research, conducted on case workers, showed that African Americans are indeed vulnerable to welfare sanctions, and especially those with a history of sanction. That is to say, those who had none at the time of the study were 29 percent more likely than Whites to receive one, while those who already had a sanction were 45 percent more likely than Whites to get another one.
“White clients in these experiments suffered no statistically discernible negative effects when linked to characteristics that hold negative meanings in the welfare-to-work context. Minority clients, however, enjoyed no such immunity: their odds of being sanctioned increased in the presence of discrediting markers even when the details of their case did not change a bit,” Schram pointed out.
In another study, sociologists Jennifer Van Hook and Frank D. Bean found that Mexican immigrants were more likely to go find a job in states were welfare benefits were the most generous. “This research refutes welfare reform assumptions that immigrants and disadvantaged native citizens seek out and maintain welfare assistance for the same reasons. In the case of Mexican immigrants, welfare seems to be used primarily to minimize the effects of gaps in employment, not to avoid work or perpetuate dependency,” said Van Hook, an associate professor of sociology and demography at the Pennsylvania State University.