Deadbeat dads, welfare moms, and uncle Sam: How the Child Support RecoveryAct punishes single-mother families

The growth of single-mother families in the early 1990s, and contemporaneou s research on the connection between the nonpayment of child support and th e number of those single-mother families on state assistance, Zed the 102(n d) Congress to conclude that stricter enforcement of child support obligati ons would shrink the welfare rolls. The Child Support Recovery Act of 1992 (CSRA)I was passed with the immediate programmatic goal of tracking down an d prosecuting the most errant noncustodial fathers, or 'deadbeats,' who fle e their home states to avoid paying child support. Prosecuting high-profile offenders, proponents reasoned, would effectuate Congress' second programm atic goal of deterring other noncustodial fathers from shirking their child support obligations. The CSRA also sought to achieve the normative goal of restoring traditional gender roles and family norms by specifying that fed eral funds; be used to ensure that men reattach themselves financially to t heir children and their children's mothers. This note documents the advent of the federal government's involvement in t he criminal prosecution of child support evaders, and explores the ramifica tions the CSRA has had and will continue to have on the people who comprise single-mother household;. I approach the issue from om several analytical framework.