Sociological Theories the Adfc Program

Sociological Theories

The ADFC program was a federal assistance program that existed between the years 1935 and 1996. ADFC gave financial assistance to children whose families had low or no income. This program was replaced -- or altered really -- by President Clinton. Now it is called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and it is also a federal assistance program. Begun in 1997, it provides cash assistance to indigent American families with dependent children through the United States Department of Health and Human Services. States are given block grants and each state both designs and administers their own programs. The access to welfare and how much a family can get varies from state to state. The ADFC is a good example for the application of social structure theories. Criminality is often seen as a schism between lower class individuals and conventional goals, norms, and rules (Seigel 2008), so it seems rational that alternatives to criminal behavior be provided by giving lower income families the opportunities to share in the rewards of conventional society. Research has shown that crime rates decrease when families receive financial help through public assistance payments (Seigel 2008).

The Head Start programs exemplify the social process theory. The Head Start Program is a program under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, offering comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. The social process theories basically state that people are influence by interactions with various organizations and processes of society such as education, employment, family life, and peer relations. The Head Start program exemplifies the application of the social process theories because, according to research, children who do not do well in school, feel alienated, reside in homes with conflict, and lack of parental involvement can all lead to criminality.

Social conflict theories are based upon the perspective that the fundamental causes of crime are the social and economic disparities at work in the society. The criminal justice system, according to Karl Marx, is thought to work for the rich while the resulting policies are more concerned with controlling the poor. Seigel and Welsh state that, "conflict theorists observe that while spending has been cut on social programs during the past few years, spending on the prison systems has skyrocketed." This leads to the conclusion that when there is a disparity between police and public and the rich and the poor, the conflict creates or influences antisocial or deviant behavior ( ).