Instant Adult: Assessing
the Social Security Administration’s Approach to Impoverished Youth with
Disabilities
Lisa E. Brown, Suffolk University Law
School
The Social Security Administration (SSA) oversees Supplemental
Security Income (SSI). To qualify for SSI, youth must have limited financial
resources and have medical condition(s) that significantly impair their
functioning. When youth turn 18 years old, their SSI eligibility is reevaluated
using adult disability criteria. Consequently, young SSI recipients face the
possibility of losing financial assistance at a pivotal time. Though SSA has
policies regarding young adults and their transition to adulthood, these
policies do not appear to be consistently enforced.
This article will review SSA’s current “Age 18
Redetermination” process as it relates to youth/young adults with developmental
and mental health diagnoses. Further this article will examine the impact that
this default reliance on age 18 has on the specified population, and offer
recommendations for revisions to SSA’s approach. These recommendations will
consider the complexities of the transition to adulthood and strive to be more
consistent with the eligibility timeline for other services such as special
education services provided through public schools.
Disarming Domestic Abusers
Natalie Nanasi, Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of Law
Guns and
domestic violence are a deadly combination. In the past 25 years, more intimate
partner homicides in the U.S. have been committed with firearms than with all other
weapons combined. Studies show that the presence of a gun in a domestic
violence situation elevates the risk of homicide by 500%. Moreover, abuse in
the home appears to be a “psychological training ground” for mass attacks. A
recent study revealed that of the mass shootings committed in the United States
from 2009 to 2016, more than half were related to domestic or family violence.
Perhaps
surprisingly, the solution to this problem does not lie in the enactment of new
legislation. Federal law currently prohibits those with misdemeanor domestic
violence convictions, as well as those subject to family violence protective
orders, from possessing firearms. Approximately half of states have enacted
similar restrictions. The laws are on the books – we just aren’t enforcing
them.
The primary means for
ensuring that abusers dispossess themselves of weapons is by creating and
supporting gun surrender programs through which abusers are informed of their
legal obligations, provided a mechanism to relinquish their firearms, and
though which the court system can monitor their compliance. This Article will
analyze the legal and procedural elements of such programs and recommend best
practices to ensure their success, and ultimately, the safety of both survivors
and the community at large