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Overall, fathers' rights activists find that the current child support system is a gender-biased system that discriminates against men. However, these activists' dissatisfaction with the child support system begins prior to the child support order, with the divorce proceedings. Many divorced men argue that awarding sole maternal custody denies a father equal rights. Yet many fathers admit that they do not want the responsibility of caring for their children on a daily basis but do want to continue the parenting role and visit with their children regularly.

A second issue that concerns fathers' rights activists is that mothers are awarded unjust child support payments; that is, more money than is needed to care for the child. Furthermore, fathers seem to resent that they have no control in the manner in which support payments are spent. Even more, fathers who pay child support become angry when visitation with their children is limited, again blaming a gender-biased system for these problems.

Activists also take issue with the term deadbeat dad. They contend that the concept of deadbeat dad carries the connotation of an affluent man who fails to meet his parental responsibility to provide for his children. Some activists suggest that the majority of dads who are labeled as deadbeats do not fit this image. In fact, they argue, many fathers just are not financially able to provide for their children, yet the court awards child support payments that he is unable to afford. For instance, activists assert that men characterized as deadbeats are either (1) remarried and the second family is worse off financially than the original family because the father is supporting his biological children and stepchildren; (2) living in poverty, homeless, or incarcerated; (3) fathers who are providing indirect support to the child and custodial parent such as repairing items around the custodial parent's house; (4) fathers who cannot find their children because the mother has moved, but the mother has filed a case with the local child support enforcement entity; (5) fathers with high arrearages in relation to their current economic circumstance; or (6) fathers who are truly child support resistors--that is, deadbeat dads.

Finally, some activists claim that child support enforcement benefits all entities related to the divorce industry. They point out that the divorce and child support industry creates jobs for many. For example, family court judges earn $90,000 to $160,000 per year, and each judge requires a staff, not to mention child support staff, social workers, private collections agencies, and attorneys. In addition, they note the availability of federal funding for the administration of child support enforcement programs under the Social Security Act. Federal funding incentives have led a number of for-profit and privately held corporations to offer services to state and local child support agencies ranging from consultation to payment processing. Thus, fathers' rights activists argue that the current child support system actually tears families apart while benefiting government and child support-related businesses.

References:

Crowley, Jocelyn, The Politics of Child Support in America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Duerr, Jill, and Bruce Fuller, eds., Good Parents or Good Workers? How Policy Shapes Families' Daily Lives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Mandel, Deena, Deadbeat Dads: Subjectivity and Social Construction. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.

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