Public Policy, Welfare, Education, and Immigration

Policy Goals

• Primary Goals:
  • Social order is the main objective.
  • Increase in crime results in a decrease in social order.
• Values of Criminal Justice Policy:
  • Social Order
  • Freedom
  • Equity: fair treatment for all individuals.

Policy Tools

• Direct Service:
  • Involves police and courts addressing crime directly.
• Negative Inducements:
  • Penalties imposed for illegal conduct.
• Persuasion:
  • Using education and socialization to encourage compliance with laws.
• Positive Inducements:
  • Offering economic benefits for compliance with social norms.

Role of Local Government

• Local Enforcement:
  • Primarily responsible for enforcing local and state laws.
• Fragmentation:
  • Existence of multiple police forces (county, city, districts) overlapping in jurisdiction, which can limit data sharing and efficiency.
• Role of Courts:
  • Function as procedural safeguards to protect individual rights, clarifying and expanding these rights.

Crime & Ideology

• Conservative View:
  • Crime considered a rational choice; criminality is viewed as a potential genetic trait influencing violent behavior.
• Liberal View:
  • Focuses on social and economic factors that lead to crime, including unemployment, poor educational access, and discrimination.

Ideology & Poverty

• Conservative Perspective:
  • Views poverty as often voluntary; many individuals are believed to choose a life of poverty.
  • Assistance is often seen as undeserved.
• Liberal Perspective:
  • Argues that individuals facing poverty cannot easily escape it and need structural assistance to improve their situation.

Deviance and Social Welfare

• Definition of Deviance:
  • Behavior that deviates from societal norms and attracts the attention of the criminal justice system.
• Social Welfare:
  • Can be utilized as a tool to maintain social order, reducing fiscal distress, as seen in Johnson's Great Society initiatives.

Opportunity Insurance

• Description of a social safety net aimed at providing individuals with equal opportunities to succeed.
• Western European welfare models emphasize basic equality of condition for all citizens.

Welfare State

• Various income support programs developed through initiatives like the New Deal and Great Society, with recipients often benefiting from multiple programs.

Reagan's Welfare Reform Goals

• Targeted to assist only the genuinely needy, eliminate fraud, and establish child support enforcement and work requirements.

Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)

• The initial cash assistance program criticized for supporting families that dissolve to gain access to benefits.

Goals of Welfare Policy

• Primary objective: provide security as a safety net while promoting self-sufficiency.
• Secondary objective: to mitigate dissent and rebellion among the impoverished.

Influences on Healthcare Policy

• Two Key Factors:
  • Fiscal constraints
  • Rising healthcare costs for citizens.

Goals of American Healthcare Policy

• Aim to meet fundamental healthcare needs of citizens and ensure equitable access across demographics.

Healthcare Policy Tools

• Provision of direct health services, including rural clinics.
• Use of Medicaid and Medicare for insurance coverage.
• Focus on disease prevention and health promotion through education.

Fee-for-Service Model

• Standard practice in American healthcare, fostering market ideologies and choice among patients treated individually.

Medicaid Overview

• Federal health insurance program assisting the poor and disabled, administered by states with varying eligibility requirements.

Social Order Challenges

• Occurs due to the violation of social norms and intrusion on civil liberties.

Socialization for Maintenance of Order

• Engaging various social agents including criminal justice, public welfare, health policy, and education to maintain social order.

Local Control of Education

• The traditional model emphasizes that the responsibility for education has resided at the community level.

Education Policy Goals

• To teach basic skills, foster a positive societal image, instill shared values, and encourage diverse social interactions.

Ideological Impacts on Education

• Liberal: Advocates for government intervention to eliminate social inequalities and provide equal opportunities.
• Conservative: Emphasizes individual responsibility and local control over educational standards.

Student Accountability and Achievements

• Federal mandates like No Child Left Behind (NCLB) impose consequences for failing to meet academic standards.

Immigration as Labor Source

• Historical context of immigration impacting labor supply for various economic sectors, especially during periods of labor shortages.

Current Immigration Policy

• Preference given to family reunification, skilled immigrants, and those with wealth, shaping the demographics of legal immigration.

Economic Policy Goals

• Aiming for economic growth, full employment, price stability, and positive trade balances.
• Understanding how government intervention can stimulate or restrict economic activity.

Privacy Rights

• Defined as individuals' rights to be left alone, outlined through natural and legal rights recognized by judicial practice, which balances state infringement and individual rights.