The Race Among the States in Welfare Benefits: A Comment

One error in research on the welfare-magnet thesis is its focuson the poor rather than on the well-endowed and mobile economicactors who influence state policymakers. Another error is theassumption that poor people are mobile participants in the gameof locational advantage. Yet, unlike well-endowed economic actorswho move funds and goods, the poor must move themselves andtheir own bodies, rather than resources. Hence, it is unlikelythat poor people are playing much of a role in any race to thebottom in welfare policymaking.     

The measure of wife abuse: Steps toward the development of a comprehensive assessment technique

The lack of an adequate assessment tool for wife abuse has hindered empirical research. The Measure of Wife Abuse (MWA) was developed to improve on previously developed instruments, mainly by using empirical methods of construction, which has enabled the MWA to assess a broader range of wife abuse behaviors. The purpose of this study was to determine the factor structure of the MWA items, and to assess its reliability and validity. Confirmatory multiple group factor analyses of the MWA responses of 164 abused women yielded four factors: Physical, Sexual, Psychological, and Verbal Abuse. The MWA was found to possess adequate levels of both reliability, estimated from its internal consistency, and concurrent validity, with the Conflict Tactics Scales as the criterion measure.