Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T04:40:25.317Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Claiming Citizenship: The Political Dimension of Welfare Fraud

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Shiri Regev-Messalem
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article exposes the political dimension of welfare fraud by investigating—in the context of the Israeli welfare reform of 2003—how forty-nine Israeli women who live on welfare justify welfare fraud. I find that women's justifications cannot be fully explained by traditional noncompliance theories that view welfare fraud as an individual, private, criminal activity that solely reflects on the fraudster's moral character or desperate need. Instead, women's justifications for welfare fraud are better understood as a sociopolitical struggle for inclusion and deservedness—as a political act that reflects an alternative concept of citizenship with respect to women's unpaid care work.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , Fall 2013 , pp. 993 - 1018
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agnew, Robert. 1994. Neutralization and Violence. Criminology 32 (4): 555–580.Google Scholar
Ajzenstadt, Mimi, and Gal, John. 2001. Appearances Can Be Deceptive: Gender in the Israeli Welfare State. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State, & Society 8 (3): 292–324.Google Scholar
Beiner, Ronald, ed. 1995. Theorizing Citizenship. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Bergerfruind, Asaf. 2004. Movtal: Ha'mishtara Ha'calcalit Be'ikvoteha. Ha'aretz, January 11.Google Scholar
Berkovitch, Nitza. 1997. Motherhood as a National Mission: The Construction of Womanhood in the Legal Discourse in Israel. Women's Studies International Forum 20:605–619.Google Scholar
Berkovitch, Nitza. 1999. Eshet Cha‐eel Mi Yemtza? Nashim Ve‐Ezrachut Ve‐Israel. Sotziologia Yisraelit 2 (1): 277–317.Google Scholar
Biur, Haim. 2005. Mankal Ha'bituah Ha'leumi: Yugshu 150 Kitvei Ishum Ekev Kabalat Havtahat Hachnasa Be'mirma. Ha'aretz, January 24.Google Scholar
Chambliss, William J. 1969. Crime and the Legal Process. New York: McGraw‐Hill.Google Scholar
Cook, Dee. 1989. Rich Law, Poor Law: Differential Response to Tax and Supplementary Benefit Fraud. Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Daly, Mary, and Lewis, Jane. 2000. The Concept of Social Care and the Analysis of Contemporary Welfare States. British Journal of Sociology 51 (2): 281–298.Google Scholar
Daly, Mary, and Rake, Katherine. 2003. Gender and the Welfare State: Care, Work and Welfare in Europe and the USA. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Dean, Hartley, and Melrose, Margaret. 1996. Unravelling Citizenship: The Significance of Social Security Fraud. Critical Social Policy 48:3–31.Google Scholar
Dean, Hartley, and Melrose, Margaret. 1997. Manageable Discord: Fraud and Resistance in the Social Security System. Social Policy and Administration 31 (2): 103–118.Google Scholar
DeParle, Jason. 2004. American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Doron, Avraham. 2010. Shimush Le'ra'a Ve'Hona'a Be'Ma'arechet Ha'bituach Ha'Leumi. Bitachon Sotziali 84:57–78.Google Scholar
Edin, Kathryn, and Jencks, Christopher. 1992. Welfare. In Rethinking Social Policy, ed. Jencks, Christopher, 205–235. New York: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Edin, Katherine, and Lein, Laura. 1997. Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low‐Wage Work. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Esping‐Andersen, G⊘sta. 1990. Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Evason, Eileen, and Woods, Robert. 1995. Poverty, Deregulation of the Labour Market and Benefit Fraud. Social Policy & Administration 29 (1): 40–54 Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha Albertson. 2000. Cracking the Foundational Myths: Independence, Autonomy, and Self‐Sufficiency. American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law 8 (1): 13–29.Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha Albertson. 2001. Dependencies. In Women and Welfare: Theory and Practice in the United States and Europe, ed. Hirschmann, Nancy J. and Liebert, Ulrike, 23–37. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Fraser, Nancy. 1989. Talking About Needs: Interpretive Contests as Political Conflicts in Welfare State Societies. Ethics 99:291–313.Google Scholar
Fraser, Nancy, and Gordon, Linda. 1994. A Genealogy of Dependence: Tracing a Keyword of the U.S. Welfare State. Signs 19 (2): 309–336.Google Scholar
Gibbs, Jack P. 1975. Crime, Punishment, and Deterrence. New York: Elsevier Science.Google Scholar
Gilliom, John. 2001. Overseers of the Poor: Surveillance, Resistance, and the Limits of Privacy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Glaser, Barney G., and Strauss, Anselm L. 2007. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. New Brunswick, NJ: Aldine Transaction.Google Scholar
Gordon, Linda. 1994. Pitied But Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare, 1890–1935. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Gornick, Janet C., and Meyers, Marcia. 2003. Families That Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Grasmick, Harold G., and Green, Donald E. 1980. Legal Punishment, Social Disapproval and Internalization as Inhibitors of Illegal Behavior. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 71:325–335.Google Scholar
Gustafson, Kaaryn S. 2011. Cheating Welfare. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Haines, Valerie J., Deikhoff, George M., LaBeff, Emily E., and Clark, Robert E. 1986. College Cheating: Immaturity, Lack of Commitment, and Neutralization Attitude. Research in Higher Education 25 (4): 342–354.Google Scholar
Handler, Joel F. 1992. Post Modernism, Protest, and the New Social Movement. Law and Society Review 26 (4): 697–731.Google Scholar
Handler, Joel F. 2004. Social Citizenship and Workfare in the United States and Western Europe: The Paradox of Inclusion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Harrington, Mona. 1999. Care and Equality: Inventing a New Family Politics. New York: Alfred A. Knop.Google Scholar
Hasenfeld, Yeheskel, Rafferty, Jane A., and Zald, Mayer N. 1987. The Welfare State, Citizenship, and Bureaucratic Encounters. Annual Review of Sociology 13:387–415.Google Scholar
Herzog, Hanna. 1999. Homefront and Battlefront: The Status of Jewish and Palestinian Women in Israel. Israel Studies 1 (3): 61–84.Google Scholar
Jones, Kathleen B. 1990. Citizenship in a Woman‐Friendly Polity. Signs 15 (4): 781–812.Google Scholar
Jordan, Bill, James, Simon, Kay, Helen, and Redley, Marcus. 1992. Trapped in Poverty? Labour‐Market Decisions in Low Income Households. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kara, Baruch. 2004. Ha'mishtara Hapratit Shel Ha'Otzar. Ha'aretz, January 11.Google Scholar
Katz, Michael B. 2008. The Price of Citizenship: Redefining the American Welfare State, updated ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Kittay, Eva Feder. 1999. Love's Labor: Essays on Women, Equality, and Dependency. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kittay, Eva Feder. 2001. From Welfare to a Public Ethic of Care. In Women and Welfare: Theory and Practice in the United States and Europe, ed. Hirschmann, Nancy J. and Liebert, Ulrike, 38–64. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Knijn, Trudie, and Kremer, Monique. 1997. Gender and the Caring Dimension of Welfare States: Toward Inclusive Citizenship. Social Politics 4 (3): 328–361.Google Scholar
Kremer, Monique. 2007. How Welfare States Care: Culture, Gender and Parenting in Europe. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, Jane E., ed. 1998. Gender, Social Care, and Welfare State Restructuring in Europe. Aldershot, Hants, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Lister, Ruth. 1997. Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Loveland, Ian. 1989. Policing Welfare: Local Authority Responses to Claimant Fraud in the Housing Benefit Scheme. Journal of Law and Society 16 (2): 187–209.Google Scholar
MacDonald, Robert. 1994. Fiddly Jobs, Undeclared Working, and the Something for Nothing Society. Work, Employment and Society 8 (4): 507–530.Google Scholar
Marshall, T. H. 1962. Sociology at the Crossroads, and Other Essays. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Martin, Diane L. 1992. Passing the Buck: Prosecution of Welfare Fraud; Preservation of Stereotypes. Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 12:52–97.Google Scholar
Matza, David, and Sykes, Gresham M. 1961. Juvenile Delinquency and Subterranean Beliefs. American Sociological Review 26:713–719.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael, and March, Tracey. 1996. Law and Everyday Forms of Resistance: A Socio‐Political Assessment. Studies in Law, Politics, and Society 15:207–236.Google Scholar
McKeever, Grainne. 1999. Detecting, Prosecuting and Punishing Benefit Fraud: The Social Security Administration (Fraud) Act 1997. Modern Law Review 62 (2): 261–270.Google Scholar
Mears, Tracey L., and Kahan, Dan M. 1998. Law and (Norms of) Order in the Inner City. Law and Society Review 32 (4): 805–806.Google Scholar
Meier, Robert F, and Johnson, Weldon T. 1977. Deterrence as Social Control: The Legal and Extralegal Production of Conformity. American Sociological Review 42:292–304.Google Scholar
Mosher, Janet, and Hermer, Joe. 2005. Welfare Fraud: The Constitution of Social Assistance as Crime. Ottawa: Law Commission of Canada.Google Scholar
Murray, Harry. 2000. Deniable Degradation: The Finger‐Imaging of Welfare Recipients. Sociological Forum 15 (1): 39–63.Google Scholar
Nelson, Barbara J. 1984. Women's Poverty and Women's Citizenship: Some Political Consequences of Economic Marginality. Signs 10 (2): 209–231.Google Scholar
O'Connor, Julia S. 1993. Gender, Class and Citizenship in the Comparative Analysis of Welfare State Regimes: Theoretical and Methodological Issues. British Journal of Sociology 44 (3): 501–518.Google Scholar
Offen, Karen. 1984. Depopulation, Nationalism, and Feminism in Fin‐de‐Siecle France. American Historical Review 89 (3): 648–676.Google Scholar
Orloff, Ann Shola. 1993. Gender and the Social Rights of Citizenship: The Comparative Analysis of Gender Relations and Welfare States. American Sociological Review 58 (3): 303–328.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1988. The Sexual Contract. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1989. The Disorder of Women: Democracy, Feminism, and Political Theory. Cambridge, UK: Polity.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1992. Equality, Difference, Subordination: The Politics of Motherhood and Women's Citizenship. In Beyond Equality and Difference: Citizenship, Feminist Politics, and Female Subjectivity, ed. Bock, Gisela and James, Susan, 17–31. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Paternoster, Raymond, and Simpson, Sally. 1996. Sanction Threats and Appeals to Morality: Testing a Rational Choice Model of Corporate Crime. Law and Society Review 30:549–583.Google Scholar
Patton, Michael Quinn. 1990. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, 2nd ed. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Piven, Frances Fox. 1979. Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Piven, Frances Fox, and Cloward, Richard A. 1993. Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare, updated ed. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Priest, Thomas Brian, and McGarth, John H. 1970. Techniques of Neutralization: Young Adult Marijuana Smokers. Criminology 8:185–194.Google Scholar
Regev‐Messalem, Shiri. Forthcoming 2013. Ezrahut Ima'hit: Hunaot Reva'ha shel Nashim Ani'yut BeIsrael Ke'akt Politi. In Antologia Al Capitalism VeMigdar, eds. Olmert, Dana, Garb, Rona Brier, Kazin, Arna and Tirosh, Yofi. Jerusalem: Van Leer.Google Scholar
Regev‐Messalem, Shiri. 2011. Welfare Fraud, Citizenship, and Resistance: Israeli Women's Attitudes Towards Workfare Ideology. JSD Diss., Law School, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.Google Scholar
Robinson, Paul H. 1995. Justice, Liability, and Blame: Community Views and the Criminal Law. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, Paul H., and Darley, John M. 1997. The Utility of Desert. Northwestern University Law Review 91:453–499.Google Scholar
Rowlingson, Karen, Whyley, Claire, Newburn, Tim, and Berthoud, Richard. 1997. Social Security Fraud: The Role of Penalties. London: Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Sainsbury, Roy. 2003. Understanding Social Security Fraud. In Understanding Social Security, ed. Millar, Jane, 277–295. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Salem, Richard G., and Bowers, William J. 1972. Severity of Formal Sanctions as a Deterrent to Deviant Behavior. Law and Society Review 5 (1): 21–40.Google Scholar
Schultz, Vicki. 2000. Life's Work. Columbia Law Review 100 (7): 1881–1964.Google Scholar
Schultz, Vicki, and Hoffman, Allison. 2006. The Need for a Reduced Workweek in the United States. In Precarious Work, Women, and the New Economy: The Challenge to Legal Norms, ed. Fudge, Judy and Owen, Rosemary, 131–151. Oxford, UK: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Seccombe, Karen. 2011. “So You Think I Drive a Cadillac?” Welfare Recipients' Perspectives on the System and Its Reform, 3rd ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.Google Scholar
Shafir, Gershon, and Peled, Yoav. 2002. Being Israeli. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sheref, Avner. 2004. Mimtza'im Ikari'im Al Pe'ulot Agaf Ha'hkirot 2003. Jerusalem: National Insurance Institute.Google Scholar
Shklar, Judith N. 1991. American Citizenship: The Quest for Inclusion. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Siim, Birte. 2000. Gender and Citizenship: Politics and Agency in France, Britain, and Denmark. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sinai, Ruti. 2002a. Hetzi Me'Hahashudim Be'hithazut Le'muvtalim Nitpesu Kshe'hem Ovdim. Ha'aretz, March 25.Google Scholar
Sinai, Ruti. 2002b. Ke‐22 Elef Nifga'ei Avoda Be'shana Mekablim Me'ha'bituach Leumi Kitzba'ot Be'sah ke‐ 1.5 Milyard Shekel. Ha'aretz, August 21.Google Scholar
Soss, Joe. 2000. Unwanted Claims: The Politics of Participation in the U.S. Welfare System. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Swirski, Barbara, and Safir, Marilyn. 1991. Calling the Equality Bluff: Women in Israel. New York: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Sykes, Gresham M., and Matza, David. 1957. Techniques of Neutraliztion: A Theory of Delinquency. American Sociological Review 22 (6): 664–670.Google Scholar
Thurman, Quint C., John, Craig St., and Riggs, Lisa. 1984. Neutralization and Tax Evasion: How Effective Would a Moral Appeal Be in Improving Compliance to Tax Laws? Law and Policy 6 (3): 309–327.Google Scholar
Tittle, Charles R. 1980. Sanctions and Social Deviance: The Question of Deterrence. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Tronto, Joan C. 1987. Beyond Gender Difference to a Theory of Care. Signs 12 (4): 644–663.Google Scholar
Tronto, Joan C. 2001. Who Cares? Public and Private Caring and the Rethinking of Citizenship. In Women and Welfare: Theory and Practice in the United States and Europe, ed. Hirschmann, Nancy J. and Liebert, Ulrike, 65–83. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. 2006. Why People Obey the Law, 2nd ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Waldo, Gordon P., and Chiricos, Theodore G. 1975. Perceived Penal Sanction and Self‐Reported Criminality: A Neglected Approach to Deterrence Research. In Law and Control in Society, ed. Akers, Ronald L. and Hawkins, Richard, 522–540. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice‐Hall.Google Scholar
Williams, Joan C. 1989. Deconstructing Gender. Michigan Law Review 87 (4): 797–845.Google Scholar
Williams, Joan C. 2000. From Difference to Dominance to Domesticity: Care as Work, Gender as Tradition. Chicago‐Kent Law Review 76:1441–1493.Google Scholar
Yuval‐Davis, Nira. 1980. The Bearers of the Collective: Women and Religious Legislation in Israel. Feminist Review 4:15–27.Google Scholar
Yuval‐Davis, Nira. 1989. Woman, Nation, State. Houndmills , Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Zinger, Roni. 2004. Zi‐yefu Tlushim Ve‐honu Ha‐bitu‐ach Ha‐leomi Be‐milyonim. Ha'aretz, August 17.Google Scholar