Getting Blood From Stones: Results and Policy Implications of an Empirical Investigation of Child Support Practice in St. Joseph County, Indiana Paternity Actions

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Today, there is consensus that the current system of allocating and enforcing child support obligations does not work well for disadvantaged families, most of which are nonmarital. Nonmarital children are less likely to have support orders established than marital children, and they are much less likely to experience full payment. In this article, we report data on child support awards and enforcement associated with a sample of paternity actions brought in 2008 or 2010 in St. Joseph County, Indiana. We found that child support practice in St. Joseph County promotes limited contact between children and their absent fathers, nonpayment of prior support obligations, and the accrual of arrears that can never be paid. These results strongly support recent changes in federal child support regulations and programs that postdate the orders in our study. Our results also demonstrate both the need for additional reforms and the difficulties that lie ahead as the states begin to grapple with applying the new standards.

Child support enforcement among the very disadvantaged neither makes fathers more responsible nor collects significant money
It also makes contact with their children less likely and results in the amassing of arrearages that will never be paid
While recent federal legal changes move in the right direction, we fear that local agencies are still unable to calculate incomes when none can be shown, and, as with credit for other paid support orders, resort to shortcuts that are inaccurate and unproductive