As part of research released in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, refraining from administering monetary welfare to children once they reach age 18 may significantly increase the risk of encountering the criminal justice system.
U.S. social welfare programs administer monetary funds to children under certain conditions up until the age of 18. The study involved examining data from the Social Security Administration and the Criminal Justice Administrative Records System.
“We evaluate this natural experiment with Social Security Administration data linked to records from the Criminal Justice Administrative Records System,” the study says.
What the study showed: “We find that SSI removal increases the number of criminal charges by a statistically significant 20% over the next two decades.”
“The increase in charges is concentrated in offenses for which income generation is a primary motivation (60% increase), especially theft, burglary, fraud/forgery, and prostitution.”
“The costs to taxpayers of enforcement and incarceration from SSI removal are so high that they nearly eliminate the savings to taxpayers from reduced SSI benefits,” the study found.
