103). These trends have also been matched by changesin the American juvenile justice system that are characterized by so-called "get-tough," "zero-tolerance" and "accountability" policies in primary and secondary educational institutions (Brown, 2009)
9). Although the relationship between youth crime and a social welfare state is well documented, the precise relationship between population size and local juvenile crime rates remains less clear (Carcach & Huntley, 2002)
Table 1 Timeline of proposed research and study conclusion ACTIVITIES/TASKS TIME (MONTHS) (2013-2014) Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr 1 Bibliographic Searches X X 2 Photocopy info from non-bibliographic sources X X 3 Reading X X X 4 Submission of study proposal X 5 Fine tune research question and methodology X X 8 Data collection X X X X 9 Data analysis X X X X 10 Writing up of study X X 11 Revision, editing and submission X 12 Submission of study X X Literature Review The research concerning the relationship between youthful offenders and their socioeconomic background has a fairly lengthy history, beginning in the late 19th century and becoming more intensified thereafter. Much of this research has regarded the problem of juvenile delinquency as being multifaceted, of course, but there is a general consensus that a lack of social services resources and a dearth of meaningful educational employment opportunities have contributed to the problem which are the responsibilities of the government (Ellis, 2011)
With many teachers in America struggling to make it from paycheck to paycheck, the results of these misguided economic priorities have included many teachers searching for greener career fields elsewhere and many children being left behind despite the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (Allen, 2007). Federal mandates for social programs for housing, Social Security, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Medicaid, food stamps, and Supplemental Security Income programs together with state and local initiatives for women, children and infants (WIC) have all been cited as characteristic of a social welfare state with the intended outcome being reduced poverty and improved social and employment opportunities that will reduce the need for young people to resort to crime in the first place (Flammang, 1997)
In reality, though, the focus on youths at risk of becoming involved with the law enforcement community is relatively recent in origin. For example, the publication of the National Commission on Excellence in Education's 1983 study, A Nation at Risk, caused educators and governmental policymakers to attempt to identify the country's at-risk youth populations for the first time in an effort to reverse the tide of declining test scores and growing dropout rates that were the major antecedents to success later in life (Fusick & Bordeau, 2009)
60). What is known for certain is that there are some approaches that have been identified as being effective in at least mitigating the impact of poverty on juvenile crime (Hornel et al
386). Likewise, other researchers have examined the relationship between poverty and juvenile crime through literature reviews (Barton & Watkins, 1997), case studies (Bogenschneider & Gross, 2004) and longitudinal studies (Mann & Reynolds, 2006)
The majority of the programs that have proven successful to date have all emphasized the family component and have included parental training as part of their interventions (Bogenschneider & Gross, 2004). Finally, a seminal study by Shaw and McKay (1942) employed one square mile sections of Chicago to investigate the relationship between poverty and juvenile crime, and other researchers have since used this method for other geographic units, including wards, police precincts, and census tracts (Ouimet, 2000)
127). These perplexing outcomes fly directly in the face of common sense, but these unintended and unexpected outcomes have nevertheless continued to adversely affect the poor despite governmental efforts at all levels to reduce poverty and the conditions that contribute to it (Weatherburn & Lind, 2000)
And secondly, the government is controlled by the affluent people who cherish these values. As a result, the welfare system in the United States may be described as corporate welfare: "governmental benefits given to corporations that are not available to individuals or other groups" (Lauer & Lauer 178)
These take forms of cash grants, subsidies, or food distribution programs that benefit the needy persons. In a more religious sense, social welfare may be defined as "food to the hungry, health care to the sick, water to the thirsty, welcome to the stranger, clothing to the naked, presence with the imprisoned, shelter to the homeless" (Wildman)
, 2003). Evidently, there is little correlation between welfare expenditure and economic performance (Atkinson, 1995)
Job training also falls under this category including retraining for the unemployed, youth, and workers in mass layoffs to increase the quantity of work supply. The third one is direct employment generation and entails the promotion of medium and small enterprises (Bender et al
However, the practice has not yet kicked off in many African countries while some models used in fostering the social welfare are not as successful like the social Security system in the U.S. (Berg & Ostry, 2011)
Taxation falls into this category only if it used to finance social insurance payments and if it used in the achievement of justice in income distribution. Evidence suggests that transfers and taxes greatly reduce poverty in countries whose welfare states comprises of about twenty percent the GDP (Bradley et al
The dualist model of social security was persuasive across many African countries covered by these reviews was partly part of the colonial pasts and the presidents that these governments created, and partly a product of the political settlements that were part of the colonial era. The development role assumed by states, the commitment to import-substituting industrialization and support groups to maintain social stability ended up underpinning employment-based public support for selected employees and exclusion of the majority (Cook & Kabeer, 2009) Authoritarian governments have introduced social programs as a way of buying social legitimacy or fending off pressures for the implementation of democracy
In most cases, it is defined in terms of interventions and organized activities or some other elements that suggest programs and policies aimed at improving the well-being of individuals at risk and responding to recognized social problems. (Handa, Devereux, and Webb, 2011) have shown that the concept of social welfare and protection and welfare as the roles of governments are currently emerging in Africa
In Africa, these expenditures are mostly in the form of subsidies to investors and pay rises for public sector workers. For these reasons, welfare programs do not target the needy sections of the population, but the ones critical for the political survival of the regime (Hickey, 2007)
In such a case, the health insurance schemes are popular in mitigating shocks. Social assistance schemes comprise of programs that are designed to help vulnerable individuals such as victims of civil conflicts or natural disasters, single parent households and the destitute poor (Howell, 2001)
For the last thirty years, which could well be thought of as a Second Gilded Age. Of course, in the late-19th Century only a very "primitive welfare state" existed with "a minimal set of poorhouses and mental institutions," as well as public hospitals and charities funded by religious organizations (Jansson, 2009, p