Child Support
Child Support
Pamela S Baron
University of Tennessee Martin You hear it about it on the news, from a friend, maybe you know someone who is divorced or unmarried with children. It’s more common today than before. Getting divorced can be difficult and in some cases it can become a nightmare. Many children live without their fathers. Single parent have a difficult task of caring for their child in many cases without the support of the other parent. We are going to see how the state and federal government has influence a change in the process of dealing with this issue. We’re going to go over some of the pros and cons of child support. Let’s start with a brief history of parent custody and child support. Around 1700-1800’s, when divorce was taboo and children were considered property. A mother was powerless against their husbands. Husband use this to their advantage to keep their wives in line. The courts would rule in favor of the father. It wasn’t until 1839 when Thomas Noon Talfourd an English Lawyer challenged this preference, which argued that any child under 7 considered the “tender years” should be in the care of it mother. The only down fall was that the child had to be return to its father once they hit the appropriate age.
The Industrial Revolution started helped with this trend. Father has to find work farther and farther away from home leaving their wives as the primary caregiver. Around this time women were gaining more legal rights. In 1848 the first Women’s Right Convention which one of the issues addressed was women’s civil rights to property and custody of their children after separation or divorces from their husband. Of course not all states agreed that mother had equal rights in custody issues but they can around. It was around the 1920s that you saw a majority of mothers gaining custody of their children and father had to start supporting them if not they were looking at fines even prison. In 1911 Illinois was
Pamela S Baron
University of Tennessee Martin You hear it about it on the news, from a friend, maybe you know someone who is divorced or unmarried with children. It’s more common today than before. Getting divorced can be difficult and in some cases it can become a nightmare. Many children live without their fathers. Single parent have a difficult task of caring for their child in many cases without the support of the other parent. We are going to see how the state and federal government has influence a change in the process of dealing with this issue. We’re going to go over some of the pros and cons of child support. Let’s start with a brief history of parent custody and child support. Around 1700-1800’s, when divorce was taboo and children were considered property. A mother was powerless against their husbands. Husband use this to their advantage to keep their wives in line. The courts would rule in favor of the father. It wasn’t until 1839 when Thomas Noon Talfourd an English Lawyer challenged this preference, which argued that any child under 7 considered the “tender years” should be in the care of it mother. The only down fall was that the child had to be return to its father once they hit the appropriate age.
The Industrial Revolution started helped with this trend. Father has to find work farther and farther away from home leaving their wives as the primary caregiver. Around this time women were gaining more legal rights. In 1848 the first Women’s Right Convention which one of the issues addressed was women’s civil rights to property and custody of their children after separation or divorces from their husband. Of course not all states agreed that mother had equal rights in custody issues but they can around. It was around the 1920s that you saw a majority of mothers gaining custody of their children and father had to start supporting them if not they were looking at fines even prison. In 1911 Illinois was
References: Abraham C. Fenster, “Anglo-American Criteria for Resolving child custody disputes from the eighteenth century to the present: Reflections on the role of socio-cultural Change,” Journal of Family History, 1994 Appel, Adrianne, Child Support Bill Backed by Frank Approved by House, Goes to Clinton,” Boston Globe, October 6, 1994. Child Support Enforcement Program, hearings before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Public Assistance and Unemployment Compensation, Feb. 23, 25, and March 2, 1988. Serial No. 100-56. Congressional Research Service, The Child Support Enforcement Program: Policy and Practice, a report prepared for the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee’s on Human Resources, Dec., 1989. Garfinkel, Irwin, “The Child Support Revolution,” American Economic Review, May 1994 Garfinkel, Irwin, McLanahan, Sara S., Single Mothers and Their Children: A New American Dilemma, Urban Institute Press, 1986. Kellam, Susan. “Child Custody and Support: Does the system serve children’s best interest?” CQ Researcher, October 26, 1990, Volume 5, Issue 2. Krause, Harry D. Child Support in America: The Legal Perspective, Michie Co., 1981. Krause, Harry D. “Child Support Reassessed: Limits of Private Responsibility and the Public Interest,” family Law Quarterly, spring 1990, pp 1-34.