Criminalizing Race, Criminalizing Poverty

Download or read book Criminalizing Race, Criminalizing Poverty written by Kiran Mirchandani and published by Fernwood Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The criminalization and penalization of poverty through increased surveillance and control of welfare recipients in recent years has led many poverty advocates to claim that "a war against the poor" is currently in progress. The authors argue that poor people in general and people of colour in particular are most often the casualties in governments' desire to roll back the welfare state. Relying on myths and stereotypes about racial difference, the enforcement and policing of welfare fraud policies constructs people of colour and the poor as potential "cheaters" and "abusers" of the system. This has allowed for the stigmatizing and discriminatory treatment of these people to persist unchallenged within the welfare system. Book jacket.