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Throughout the history of social assistance programs, administrators have attempted to limit access only to those families considered "worthy" of assistance. Policies about worthiness have included both judgements about need, generally tied to income, demographic characteristics, or family circumstances, and judgements about moral character, often as evidenced by behaviour. Past policies evaluating moral character based on family structure have been replaced by today''s policies, which focus on criminal activity, particularly drug-related criminal activity. This book provides an overview of the history and evolution of policies establishing drug- and crime-related restrictions in federal assistance programs with a focus on TANF, SNAP, and three primary federal housing assistance programs (the public housing program, the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, and the project-based Section 8 rental assistance program).

The long-term strategic success in counterinsurgency operations, such as Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, involves separating enemy combatants from innocent civilians in the general population. U.S. military forces in Afghanistan are using biometrics to identify enemy combatants and link individuals to events such as improvised explosive device detonations. Biometrics and related biometrics-enabled intelligence are decisive, non-lethal battlefield capabilities that deny enemy combatants the necessary anonymity to hide and strike at will. Biometrics is the measurement and analysis of a person''s unique physical or behavioural characteristics, such as fingerprints, iris scans, facial photographs, or written signature recognition, which can be used to verify personal identity. This book examines biometrics use in the Department of Defense with a focus on additional training for leaders, timely transmission of data, and better standards to share information within federal agencies.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called the Food Stamp Program) plays a vital role in the social safety net in the United States, providing almost $72 billion in benefits in 2011. An important measure of SNAP''s effectiveness is the extent to which the program reduces poverty. Evaluations of antipoverty effect of safety net programs often focus on the rate of poverty. However, the poverty rate reflects only one aspect of the antipoverty effect of a safety net program, whether or not adding program benefits to a family''s resources lifts them above the poverty threshold. This book examines SNAP''s role in poverty reduction with a focus on increased food security.

A number of tax provisions have either expired in 2011 or are scheduled to expire at the end of this FY 2012. These include the Bush tax cuts, the alternative minimum tax (AMT) patch, the temporary payroll tax cut, and other temporary expiring provisions, many of which are commonly referred to as "tax extenders." Aside from the payroll tax cut, which was extended by the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, the most recent law extending many of these provisions was the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010. This book provides an overview of these expiring provisions with a focus on past cost and cost of extension and a brief discussion of the current debate concerning the policy.

Although several countries have been introducing more stringent laws to reduce the amount of waste to be land-filled, in an attempt to maximise recycling and materials recovery, landfilling is still the most generalised practice for municipal solid waste treatment. In this book, the authors discuss waste management in landfills, regional practices and its environmental impact. Topics include the reduction of environmental impact of municipal landfill leachate during oxidative treatment; polymers recycling; management of electronic waste in the Basque Country; and toxicity of landfills by plant cytogenetic and mutagenic effects.

In this book, the authors present current research in the study of child abuse indicators, psychological impact and prevention. Topics discussed in this compilation include the link between mistreatment and obesity in childhood; child maltreatment prevalence and consequences of victimisation; bone disease and fractures in early childhood and their relation to child abuse; managing the risk of child sexual abuse including prevention and intervention strategies; addressing childhood trauma in Malta; the role of child sexual abuse in the development of psychopathology and borderline personality disorder.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees the approval and regulation of drugs entering the U.S. market. Two regulatory frameworks support the FDA''s review of prescription drugs. First, FDA reviews the safety and effectiveness of new drugs that manufacturers wish to market in the United States; this process is called pre-market approval or pre-approval review. Second, once a drug has passed that threshold and is FDA-approved, FDA acts through its post-market or post-approval regulatory procedures. This book is a primer on drug approval and regulation. It describes how drugs are approved and come to market, including the FDA''s role in that process and the FDA and industry roles once drugs are on pharmacy shelves.

The FDA is responsible for overseeing the safety and effectiveness of medical devices sold in the United States. New devices are generally subject to FDA review via the 510(k) process, which determines if a device is substantially equivalent to another legally marketed device, or the more stringent pre-market approval process, which requires evidence providing reasonable assurance that the device is safe and effective. This book examines whether the FDA is sufficiently meeting the performance goals and whether devices are reaching the market in a timely manner.