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Collateral Damage: The Children of Divorce

Joanna L. Grossman and Lawrence M. Friedman

in Inside the Castle: Law and the Family in 20th Century America

This chapter explores the rules and standards that courts are supposed to use in awarding custody, and how these rules and standards have shifted over the years. It also looks at the troubling issue ... More

This chapter explores the rules and standards that courts are supposed to use in awarding custody, and how these rules and standards have shifted over the years. It also looks at the troubling issue of child support. There are minor children in roughly half of all divorces, after all, which makes custody an issue. Typically, in such cases both parents are fit; both have a constitutionally protected interest in rearing their children, but both have also chosen to live separate lives. Neither has a superior constitutional claim, and courts simply have to apply the state standard for handling custody disputes. The chapter considers who is supposed to pay for the children left adrift after divorce and how support awards are enforced.Less

Life After PRWORA: The Involvement of African American Fathers With Welfare-Reliant Children and the Child Support Enforcement System

David J. Pate

in Social Work With African American Males: Health, Mental Health, and Social Policy

Since the 1960s, fathers for children on welfare have been described in various ways. They have been described as “absent” and more recently as “deadbeat dads” for not contributing to the family ... More

Since the 1960s, fathers for children on welfare have been described in various ways. They have been described as “absent” and more recently as “deadbeat dads” for not contributing to the family financially; this newest term recognizes that some of these fathers do not have the financial ability to take care of their children. With welfare reform in 1996, the pursuit of such “deadbeat” dads was made part of the law, with enhanced child support laws and incentives under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). This chapter examines the effect of these changes in welfare on the role of low-income fathers and their welfare-reliant children. This is accomplished using qualitative data collected from research conducted on low-income fathers of children on welfare in the Wisconsin Child Support Demonstration Evaluation, a rigorous assessment of a state child support program. The chapter examines how the low-income fathers affected by PRWORA met the basic needs of their children during the early years of welfare reform, which created work requirements for mothers and eliminated the entitlement to cash assistance. In particular, it presents testimonies from three fathers who discuss their roles as breadwinners, caregivers, and co-parents.Less

Children, Citizenship and Child Support: The Child Support Grant in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Francie Lund

in Registration and Recognition: Documenting the Person in World History

In April 1998, the post-apartheid South African government introduced a monthly cash transfer for children in poor households. A requirement for getting the grant was that the birth of the child had ... More

In April 1998, the post-apartheid South African government introduced a monthly cash transfer for children in poor households. A requirement for getting the grant was that the birth of the child had to be registered, and the adult primary caregiver had to have the citizen identity document. The success of the system of support was contingent on the new democratic government's ability to integrate into one national welfare system what had been fragmented under apartheid into many racially separated systems; it also, ironically, built on the apartheid-era state pension delivery system. Within a decade the grant reached more than ten million children, and was associated with a rapid increase in birth registrations, marking the poorest children's first step into citizenship, and opening up the possibility of later access to other programmes and entitlements.Less

Eliminating Welfare and Reducing Child Poverty

Duncan Lindsey

in Child Poverty and Inequality: Securing a Better Future for America's Children

This chapter examines the limitations and flaws of the welfare program, and suggests different approaches to solving child poverty that have been used in most of the other industrialized nations of ... More

This chapter examines the limitations and flaws of the welfare program, and suggests different approaches to solving child poverty that have been used in most of the other industrialized nations of Europe, Australia, and elsewhere. The two central approaches to reducing child poverty that have been used in most other industrialized nations are effective child support collection and a progressive children's allowance. The United States has among the worst record in the world in terms of assuring child support collection. This problem is particularly important for poor and low-income children. If the United States were to adopt child support collection approaches used in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere, it could cut child poverty rates in half. Furthermore, if the United States were to adopt a progressive children's allowance as is found in most other countries, it could further substantially cut child poverty.Less

Two Simple Programs for Ending Child Poverty

Duncan Lindsey

in The Welfare of Children

This chapter examines social policy initiatives and programs designed to alter the current structural arrangements responsible for the condition of poor children. If the families served by child ... More

This chapter examines social policy initiatives and programs designed to alter the current structural arrangements responsible for the condition of poor children. If the families served by child welfare agencies suffer from severe economic hardship, and this hardship is a factor that contributes to the problems child welfare is attempting to solve, social and economic policy changes which address this hardship should be pursued. Further, solutions to these problems do not necessarily require more money so much as rethinking and redesigning policies and programs that have proven ineffective and out of date. For example, children suffer because of an ineffective and obsolete court-administered child support collection system. They also suffer because of inequities in the form of the children's allowance program developed in the United States.Less

Who’s Taking Care of the Children? Title IV: Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and Related Programs for Children and Families

Andrew W. Dobelstein

in Understanding the Social Security Act: The Foundation of Social Welfare for America in the Twenty-First Century

Efforts to provide financial support to economically dependent children have emerged from some of America's most confusing social welfare policy objectives. As a result, at least five major programs ... More

Efforts to provide financial support to economically dependent children have emerged from some of America's most confusing social welfare policy objectives. As a result, at least five major programs are now administered under the authority of Title IV of the Social Security Act: several modified forms of cash assistance for children and their families, support for children in substitute homes (foster and institutional care), child support enforcement, long term planning for children not living in their own homes, and temporary assistance for needy families (TANF) that limits the amount of time some families and children can receive financial support. Title IV has become the part of the Social Security Act that addresses a comprehensive social welfare concern for America's children.Less

The Struggle Continues: 1980s–90s

Pat Thane and Tanya Evans

in Sinners? Scroungers? Saints?: Unmarried Motherhood in Twentieth-Century England

Continuing difficulties for unmarried mothers and their children despite improvements. Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Governments, cuts to welfare, pressure on mothers to work, but childcare hard ... More

Continuing difficulties for unmarried mothers and their children despite improvements. Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Governments, cuts to welfare, pressure on mothers to work, but childcare hard to find and contracting labour market. ‘Broken families’ blamed for social problems as divorce, cohabitation, and babies born out of wedlock rose to unprecedented levels. Government claims that ‘teenage mothers’ got pregnant to get a council house and welfare benefits. Disproved by research but accusations continued into 1990s. Successful efforts by OPF to set up courses to help mothers into work, strongly supported by mothers. In 1987, all legal differences between ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’ children eliminated after long campaign by NC/OPF. In 1991 the establishment of Child Support Agency, badly designed in a hurry and made access to maintenance and benefits more difficult and conditions worsened. Intensified government attacks on lone, especially unmarried mothers, until Conservatives lost 1997 election.Less

Applying the Framework to Family Ties Burdens

Dan Markel, Jennifer M. Collins, and Ethan J. Leib

in Privilege or Punish: Criminal Justice and the Challenge of Family Ties

This chapter analyzes the various family ties burdens identified in Chapter 4. It offers a basis for how the normative framework in Chapter 5 contributes to a more comprehensive accounting when ... More

This chapter analyzes the various family ties burdens identified in Chapter 4. It offers a basis for how the normative framework in Chapter 5 contributes to a more comprehensive accounting when analyzing each family ties burden. The framework recommends caution about the bulk of the family ties burdens that have been identified and urges creativity in redesigning these burdens to make them less discriminatory.Less

Truth

John Eekelaar

in Family Law and Personal Life

Starting from the observation that the law constructs a reality which may not correspond to ‘physical’ truth, this chapter starts by considering the way kin relationships have been designed to ... More

Starting from the observation that the law constructs a reality which may not correspond to ‘physical’ truth, this chapter starts by considering the way kin relationships have been designed to project a social order from one generation to successor generations. Legal concepts of legitimacy, illegitimacy, and the circumstances in which paternity is recognized subordinate recognizing biological reality to upholding a social order. But, while arguing that children's right to know their identity generally demands that their biological origins should be known, the chapter maintains that parents do not have an equivalent right to develop a relationship with a child for no other reason than that they are the child's parent, even though the parent may have a duty to support the child. The argument is developed in the context of the rights to family and private life in the European Convention on Human Rights.Less

The Consequences of Divorce

Julie Macfarlane

in Islamic Divorce in North America: A Shari’a Path in a Secular Society

This chapter describes the social, spiritual, legal and financial outcomes of divorce for Muslim men and women. There is consensus that women suffer the most negative social consequences. In some ... More

This chapter describes the social, spiritual, legal and financial outcomes of divorce for Muslim men and women. There is consensus that women suffer the most negative social consequences. In some cases they are shunned, at least temporarily, by their families and communities. Most respondents reported that they found no tension between their faith and their decision to divorce, with the majority reporting that this personal crisis strengthened their faith and brought them closer to God. A few found that extremely negative family and social reactions to their divorce turned them away from Islam. Financial and legal outcomes for respondents (broken down between shorter, mid-length and longer marriages) were similar to those adjudicated in a common law system. Many respondents combined some Islamic principles —for example, payment of the mahr—with North American legal principles such as the payment of spousal support and joint custody. Many respondents ended up with some aspect of their divorce outcome determined by a court, because they were otherwise unable to resolve a particular dispute. A small group rejected any common law outcomes to which they would not have been entitled in Islam.Less

A Survey of Family Ties Burdens

Dan Markel, Jennifer M. Collins, and Ethan J. Leib

in Privilege or Punish: Criminal Justice and the Challenge of Family Ties

This chapter identifies practices characterized as family ties burdens. These include parental responsibility laws imposing liability on parents because of crimes or misdeeds committed by their ... More

This chapter identifies practices characterized as family ties burdens. These include parental responsibility laws imposing liability on parents because of crimes or misdeeds committed by their children, omissions liability for failing to prevent harm to family members, and criminal liability for nonpayment of child or parental support. Defendants are also burdened on account of their family status when they face prosecutions for incest, adultery, and bigamy. In all seven of these instances, in the absence of the particular familial status of the defendant, the actions or omissions at issue would largely be ignored by the criminal justice system or, in some cases, treated more leniently.Less

Responding to the support needs of children and young people caring for parents with HIV

Ruth Evans and Saul Becker

in Children caring for parents with HIV and AIDS: Global issues and policy responses

This chapter focuses on the support needs of children and young people who care for parents with HIV, and discusses local and global strategies and responses. It also discusses the implications of ... More

This chapter focuses on the support needs of children and young people who care for parents with HIV, and discusses local and global strategies and responses. It also discusses the implications of young people's caring roles for the needs and requirements for support of families affected by HIV/AIDS. The chapter examines the perspectives of young people, parents, and service providers on their support needs in Tanzania and the UK. It discusses service providers' views of the development of services and support for this hidden group of young people and their suggested improvements to existing service provision. The chapter explores debates about targeting support for children caring for parents/relatives with HIV, issues of disclosure of HIV status for accessing services, and providers's views on whether efforts should be focused on preventing children being drawn into caring roles or on responding to children's support needs once they have taken on caring responsibilities.Less

Maintenance, the Magistrates’ Courts and the State

Stephen Cretney

in Family Law in the Twentieth Century: A History

For many years, married women who needed protection used the Magistrates’ Courts, which had a (very restricted) jurisdiction to make orders in cases where wife and children needed financial support ... More

For many years, married women who needed protection used the Magistrates’ Courts, which had a (very restricted) jurisdiction to make orders in cases where wife and children needed financial support from the husband. How should those orders be enforced? Was there any scope for social work intervention? The State provided support through the Poor Law and then, after World War II, through welfare benefits; but should the adults involved be ultimately responsible for the cost? Eventually the Child Support Act 1991 introduced what was intended to be a modern and scientific system under which a Child Support Agency would use a formula to calculate responsibility for family support and have recourse to efficient business management tools to enforce the obligations. The scheme did not work out wholly as had been hoped.Less

Child Support: Interactions between Private and Public Transfers

Robert I. Lerman and Elaine Sorensen

in Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States

This chapter, which examines child support policies, especially the activities of the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) Program, and how they interact with transfer policies and affect the low-income ... More

This chapter, which examines child support policies, especially the activities of the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) Program, and how they interact with transfer policies and affect the low-income population, is organized as follows. Section 9.2 reviews the history of the CSE program, its rules, and objectives. Section 9.3 considers the economic rationale for government's role in child support. Section 9.4 describes trends in child support awards and payments. Section 9.5 discusses the importance of child support to low-income families. Section 9.6 examines the capacity of noncustodial parents to pay child support. Section 9.7 discusses the trends in costs and effectiveness of the child support program. Section 9.8 reviews the financing of this program. Section 9.9 examines the effects of child support incentives on behavior. Section 9.10 discusses remaining equity issues within child support. Section 9.11 considers several reform proposals. The final section draws conclusions about directions for the future of child support policies.Less

Child support among selected OECD countries: a comparative analysis

James Kunz, Patrick Villeneuve, and Irwin Garfinkel

in Child well-being, child poverty and child policy in modern nations (Revised 2nd Edition): What do we know?

This chapter examines child support among selected countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It starts by presenting some background information on child support ... More

This chapter examines child support among selected countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It starts by presenting some background information on child support in general, before providing an overview of the recent changes in child support policies in the countries that are examined. The chapter then describes the data and methodology that are used, before finally presenting the results and discussing their implications.Less

The Financial Incidents of Family Dissolution

Grace Ganz Blumberg

in Cross Currents: Family Law and Policy in the US and England

This chapter deals with wealth redistribution when family members no longer share a common household. It traces the history of wealth redistribution at family breakdown in the United States during ... More

This chapter deals with wealth redistribution when family members no longer share a common household. It traces the history of wealth redistribution at family breakdown in the United States during the second half of the twentieth century. Three forms of wealth distribution are discussed: property division, spousal support, and child support. Mid-century began with a relatively long-established formal law of divorce, which corresponded to a well-established social model of the ideal family. Because spousal fault was not legally monitored, divorce was in fact freely available if parties were willing to negotiate the conclusion of their marriage. Given limitations on female labor force participation, most divorces were initiated by husbands, who obtained their freedom with property settlements (even in the absence of any marital property regime) and continuing support obligations. Although this system occasionally engendered egregious unfairness, it often produced rough justice, and results were in any event not remarkably different than under the successor regime.Less

Legal Discrimination against Unwed Mothers

in Tough Choices: Bearing an Illegitimate Child in Japan

In Japan, single unwed mothers experience greater legal discrimination than other single mothers. These legal disadvantages are evident in the family register, a document that makes unwed mothers and ... More

In Japan, single unwed mothers experience greater legal discrimination than other single mothers. These legal disadvantages are evident in the family register, a document that makes unwed mothers and their illegitimate children easily identifiable. Under the family register, the legal relationship of illegitimate children with their fathers is also considered much weaker than that of legitimate children. Furthermore, unwed mothers face a host of obstacles when it comes to negotiations of child acknowledgment and child support in family courts. The legal differences between illegitimate and legitimate children may account for Japanese single mothers' very high regard for marriage and widespread willingness to avoid illegitimacy even at the price of abortion. This chapter examines the status of unwed mothers in the Japanese legal system and their thoughts and feelings about it. It first looks at how unwed mothers are treated in the family registry and household registry, before turning to how they fare in such areas as “prior attempted mediation” in family-related disputes, DNA testing, and child support payments.Less

Post-divorce Financial Obligations

John Eekelaar

in Cross Currents: Family Law and Policy in the US and England

Surveying the evolution of Western European family law from the early nineteenth century, Harry Willekens maintains that, despite surface national variations, there has been universal movement away ... More

Surveying the evolution of Western European family law from the early nineteenth century, Harry Willekens maintains that, despite surface national variations, there has been universal movement away from the pivotal role of legitimacy in determining parent-child relationships; from the marital and parental authority of husbands; from highly restrictive divorce; and from legal hostility to domestic cohabitation outside marriage. Mary Ann Glendon also remarks on ‘attenuation’ of the ‘ties that support’ in European and American families during the twentieth century, especially during the 1970s. The circle of family members owing each other support obligations narrowed; the former presumption that interspousal support obligations survive divorce was reversed; and, though child support obligations were retained after separation, their enforcement was feeble. Glendon then contrasted those events with the contemporaneous increase in security provided by employment, noting the growing importance of benefits (in particular, pensions) attached to specific employments. Individuals seemed to be becoming more bonded with their employment than with their marital partners. But Glendon did not see these new bonds as providing stable alternatives to those of the family.Less

A Forum for Every Fuss: The Growth of Court Services and ADR Treatments for Family Law Cases in the United States

Jessica Pearson

in Cross Currents: Family Law and Policy in the US and England

Court cases involving domestic relations are the largest and fastest growing of state court civil caseloads, comprising an estimated 25–50 per cent of all civil actions. Domestic relations cases are ... More

Court cases involving domestic relations are the largest and fastest growing of state court civil caseloads, comprising an estimated 25–50 per cent of all civil actions. Domestic relations cases are defined as those involving divorce, child support, custody, domestic violence, paternity, adoption, visitation, and interstate child custody. To deal with overburdened dockets, protect children from the harmful effects of adversarial proceedings, and accommodate the rising tide of allegations of dysfunction and the declining use of lawyers in family law cases, courts turned to alternative dispute resolution generally and mediation in particular. This chapter describes how courts in the United States have responded to the surge in domestic relations filings in families increasingly characterised by poverty and its attendant risks and dysfunctions. It examines the legal, political, and representation factors that affect how courts have responded to the deluge of domestic relations cases, including the trend toward joint custody and access, the aggressive enforcement of child support, and the trend toward self-representation.Less