evidence: In Assembly Bill 3659, the California legislature called public attention to the problems of chronic welfare dependency, crime and violence, alcoholism and drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, child abuse, and academic failure. Although we have some idea of the number of people involved in each problem area, we have little knowledge about whether these are discrete or overlapping populations. Recently, increasing attention has been paid to the possible existence of an "underclass" in American life—a class of people who are outside the nation's economic and social mainstream. There is no rigorous or accepted definition of the term underclass, but Reischauer (1987) has summarized the most widely agreed-upon characteristics of the group as (1) persistently low income; (2) a weak attachment to the labor force; (3) a lack of education and skills exemplified by functional illiteracy and dropping out of school; (4) a sense of alienation from mainstream society, possibly accompanied by substance abuse, criminal activity, participation in the underground economy, fathering or bearing a child out of wedlock, or long-term welfare dependency; (5) membership in a minority group that is discriminated against; and (6) residence in a neighborhood with a high concentration of disadvantaged or dysfunctional behavior.