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"[This book] provides a vivid portrait and appraisal of how the lives of poor people are disrupted or helped by the judicial system, from the lowest to the highest courts. Drawing from court room observations, court decisions, and other material, this book spans the street level justice of administrative hearings and lower courts (where people plead for welfare benefits or for a child not to be taken away), the mid-level justice of state courts (where advocates argue for the right to shelter for the homeless and for the rights of the mentally disabled), and the high justice of the Supreme Court (where the battle for school integration has represented a route out of poverty and the stop and frisk cases illustrate a route to greater poverty, through the mass incarceration of people of color). [The book] brings readers inside the courts, telling the story through the words and actions of the judges, lawyers, and ordinary people who populate it. It seeks to both edify and criticize. Readers will learn not only how courts work, but also how courts sometimes help - and often fail - the poor."--Back cover

Three new books look at poverty from the bottom up, painting a vivid portrait of the lives poor people live. In focusing on individual behavior, however, the books neglect a crucial political question: how to get governments to improve the situation. Adapted from the source document.

Poverty campaigners have devoted too little attention to the fact that most poor people have no assets. Tom Paine (1969) wanted to tax the assets of the wealthy, transferring the proceeds to citizens at the beginning of life. Modern neo-conservatives want to replace the welfare state with a capital grant at birth. This article rejects the latter course on the basis of economic theory and praticability. But it does advocate capitalising welfare and tax benefits in the case of higher education and pensions, as well as extending housing asset ownership.

This article explores trends in child poverty in the UK since 1979 and examines the extent to which the government is making progress in pursuit of its objective to abolish child poverty in 20 years. The spatial distribution of child poverty is examined by country, local authority and ward. The characteristics of households containing poor children are presented and research on the dynamics of child poverty reviewed. Child poverty in the UK trebled during the 1980s and has only just begun to fall slowly. Child poverty is heavily spatially concentrated and the risks of child poverty are concentrated in certain types of household. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Next year, welfare as we now know it is slated to come before Congress for reauthorization. By "welfare" I mean federally financed cash assistance to low-income mothers (and occasionally fathers) with children. Welfare as we used to know it was the program called Aid to Families with Dependent Children, in effect from 1935 to 1996. It was hardly generous (as well as being otherwise flawed), but it nonetheless succumbed in 1996 to three decades of conservative attack. The allegation was that it had created undue numbers of long-term recipients; it had fostered welfare dependency. The program was replaced by Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), which made it much harder to obtain assistance and imposed stringent time limits.

The rule of engagement -- Welfare fair hearings -- Child maltreatment proceedings -- The justice of street level justice -- Courts as a catalyst for social change -- Protecting or coercing persons with mental disabilities -- Legal advocacy for the homeless -- The justice of social reform litigation -- The Supreme Court -- Race, education and the constitution -- Criminal justice and racial profiling -- The high justice of the Supreme Court

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Tables and Figures -- Acknowledgments -- 1. The Increasing Numbers of Poor Women and Children -- 2. Poverty Trends and the Feminization of Poverty -- 3. Mother-Only Families: Growth and Causes of Poverty -- 4. The Social Welfare Response -- 5. Social Welfare Lessons from Europe -- 6. Reforming the American Welfare System -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author

The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC-AR5) considers new evidence of climate change based on many independent scientific analyses from observations of the climate system, paleoclimate archives, theoretical studies of climate processes and simulations using climate models. "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased". "Changes in many extreme weather and climate events have been observed since about 1950. It is very likely that the number of cold days and nights has decreased and the number of warm days and nights has increased on the global scale". "It is likely that the frequency of heat waves has increased". "There are likely more land regions where the number of heavy precipitation events has increased than where it has decreased". "The frequency or intensity of heavy precipitation events has likely increased". In the meantime, it is now well known that climate change consequences (increasing magnitude and frequency of droughts, floods, storms and/or coastal erosion) will mainly impact the most vulnerable. Although there are multiple ways to define vulnerability, we here define vulnerability as the exposure of individuals or collective groups to livelihood stress as a result of the impacts of such climate change and consecutive socioeconomic and environmental changes. In the context of this paper, we will focus on natural disasters induced by "climate change". We will travel across developing countries to illustrate the increasing vulnerability of the poor and the way they –sometimes– develop effective adaptation responses. We conclude that, for many reasons (mainly the protection of individual, financial and/or political interests), the poor will become poorer. ; Peer reviewed