TANF and crime: An exploration into welfare generosity and its antecedent and consequent associations with adolescent and adult dysfunctional behaviors

A central distinction of 1996's welfare reform is that the federal government devolved authority to the states to design their own Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs. The current study explores the states' discretionary TANF programs, in terms of their effects on family well-being, as well as the political factors influencing the generosity of benefits. Due to its effects on increasing single mothers working. TANF may be related to dysfunctional behaviors among recipients' adolescent children (Dishion and Patterson, 2006; Duncan and Chase-Lansdale, 2004). Another perspective on the relationship between TANF and dysfunctional behaviors is rooted in Piven and Cloward (1993)'s social control perspective. They argue that minority dysfunctional behaviors explain variations in welfare generosity, dependent upon contextual factors. To test the interplay between TANF and dysfunctional behaviors, I conduct MSA- and state-level analyses. The MSA-level analysis tests the relationship between TANF and adolescent dysfunctional behaviors, defined as delinquency and teen pregnancy, across 59 MSAs in the U.S. from 1999 through 2006, using a negative binomial regression with fixed effects. This analysis tests the effects of TANF on adolescents, through increases in single mothers working. Secondly, this analysis tests a direct relationship between TANF family support programs and reductions in adolescent dysfunctional behaviors. The state-level analysis tests the relationship between dysfunctional behaviors, defined as minority, violent criminal arrests, and welfare benefit levels. This analysis includes data from the 50 U.S. States from 1996 through 2006 and employs a fixed effects OLS regression with panel-corrected standard errors, as well as a difference-in-difference estimation procedure. The results of these investigations are mixed. The MSA-level analyses suggest that adolescent dysfunctional behaviors are unrelated to the TANF effects on single mothers working. The analysis finds that TANF support programs are directly related to reductions in dysfunctional behaviors, but the small effect size and measurement errors limit substantive conclusions. In both state-level analyses, the results substantiate Piven and Cloward's theory. The findings suggest that dysfunctional behaviors among minorities account for variations in welfare generosity in the U.S. from 1996 through 2006, with the direction of that influence contingent upon political and demographic factors.