Child Support

Brief History of Child Support

The obligation of child support is not a new policy initiative. Centuries ago, the first child support enforcement began in England in an effort to hold unwed parents accountable for their careless behavior. English taxpayers did not see supporting children born out of wedlock as their responsibility; thus, mothers were pressured to name the fathers of their children. Fathers, in turn, were expected to marry the mother, pay child support, or serve time in prison. The preferred option was for couples to marry.

Throughout the history of child support, the emphasis placed on individual responsibility for children has remained consistent. At the beginning of the 20th century, most U.S. states made financial support available for dependent children, but for the most part, children born outside of marriage were not eligible for this assistance, and mothers who claimed abandonment were often not believed. The solution to this problem was to make fathers accountable for supporting their children. As a result, 46 states passed laws criminalizing desertion and nonsupport. Unfortunately, these laws were ineffective, and a number of children became wards of the state.

In 1935, Aid to Dependent Families, which later became Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC), was developed to support families whose fathers had died. By the 1960s, the agency responsible for administering this program made aid eligible to virtually all children who did not have fathers present in the home. While the government assisted these children financially, the ultimate goal was to locate absent fathers and hold them accountable for support. This goal of personal responsibility was reminiscent of early Anglo-American law.

These early measures were important for establishing a precedent that encouraged parental responsibility, but these efforts were not always effective. Fathers often could not be located and when located, still failed to pay support. It was not until the 1980s that mothers' groups and New Right conservatives joined forces to reiterate the need for noncustodial fathers to provide financial support for their children. Specific legislation was passed during this time that stipulated how support awards were determined and allocated. The Family Support Act of 1988 required states to develop [Page 131]guidelines that determined the amount of support a noncustodial parent had to pay, implement automatic deduction of support payments from wages, and create and operate a computerized system that tracked and monitored support payments. These changes were made to ensure that custodial parents (usually mothers) would receive an adequate amount of money to support their children and that delinquent noncustodial parents would be held accountable. These modifications made in the 1980s were directly related to the high level of arrearages in the 1970s and early 1980s. Throughout the history of child support policy, it has been assumed that mothers receive custody of children and that fathers are responsible for payment of child support. Today, this is not always the case. The number of custodial fathers has more than doubled since the 1980s. This increase is due in part to the emphasis placed on gender neutrality in the family courts. Both mothers and fathers are seen as viable candidates for custody until proven otherwise. Regardless of who has custody of children, some form of financial support is expected, and often mandated, from the noncustodial parent. Scholars are divided as to whether the receipt and payment of support is connected to the gender of the noncustodial parent or if this is a gender-neutral issue.

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