The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law #104-193) is perhaps the most visible national legislation since the sweeping Civil Rights laws of the 1960s. For social policy so well entrenched into the American social fabric, the rapidity with which reforms swept through the welfare system was unprecedented and confound conventional theoretical pronouncements on bureaucracy and policy change. The swiftness of reform, and the political rhetoric that surrounded the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, have prompted criticism that reformers responded more to the social construction of welfare recipients than they did to the dictates of sound public policy (Magusson and Dunham, 1996). This article discusses the ramifications of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act for battered women and concludes that battered women's social construction as deserving of public assistance, but politically weak, precipitated welfare reform policy, targeted to battered women, that has been largely rhetorical rather than substantive. Copyright 2001 by The Policy Studies Organization.
This study is a social cost-benefit analysis of domestic violence shelter services. In conducting the analysis, the authors distinguish between short-term and longer-term program costs and benefits. They obtained estimates of several of the short-term costs and benefits and used these figures for their quantitative analysis. They then discuss the potential longer-term costs and benefits of shelter programs but do not monetize these effects. The costs of domestic violence shelter services include operating expenses and public assistance for women and children. The benefits of the domestic violence shelter services include assaults averted and mental health benefits. The authors find that domestic violence shelter services have social benefits that significantly outweigh the social costs. The minimum net social benefit of the domestic violence shelter program is $3,494,934 and the minimum benefit-cost ratio is 4:6.
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