Policing welfare : punitive adversarialism in public assistance / Spencer Headworth.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-286) and index.

The strings attached -- One nation, finding fraud -- The mill and the grist -- The welfare police -- Occupational frames and identities in fraud control work --Fraud control as performance -- The blame game -- Finding welfare rule violators -- Conclusion.

'Government assistance in the United States requires that recipients meet certain criteria and continue to maintain their eligibility so that benefits are paid to the'truly needy.' Welfare is regarded with such suspicion in this country that considerable resources are spent to police the boundaries of eligibility. Even minor infractions of the many rules can cause people to be dropped from these programs. In this book Spencer Headworth gives us the first study of the structure of fraud control in the welfare system, the relations between different levels of governmental agencies, from federal to local, and their enforcement practices. Policing Welfare shows how the enforcement regime of welfare is trained on those living in poverty furthering their stigmatization and often deepening racial disparities in our society'-- Provided by publisher.