As it turns out the objective of our current "Child Support" system has been around for over 400 years! Please hint the "OBJECTIVE" (to financially care for children in the U.S.) of our current system as been around for that long. There have been many twinks and twists to how that "OBJECTIVE" is met, but nonetheless it has been around for many years. Below I have timelined milestones in child support and gender bias in the U.S. up to 1967. My next post should finish out the history from 1967 - present. I found this great material at http://www.childsupportanalysis.co.uk/information_and_explanation/world/history_usa.htm, copy written by Barry Pearson, 2003. As you read the timeline please remember that women did not have the same legal rights as men until the Civil Rights act of 1964! Women were allowed to work some jobs, but were grossly under paid compared to their male counter parts. That bit of knowledge should help you understand why and how the laws were written (primary supporter usually was always the male).
The Poor Laws, 1601:
The earliest history of child support in the USA came from the inheritance of the English poor laws. These laws were intended to allow parishes (local communities) to recover their costs of keeping people out of destitution from the relatives of those people. "Child support law existed in the thirteen colonies and has existed in the states since the beginning of the nation's history".
Development of civil law for child support:
Stanton v. Willson, Connecticut; 1808
Van Valkinburgh v. Watson, New York; 1816
Tomkins v. Tomkins, New Jersey; 1858
"American courts in the nineteenth century addressed the problem of dependency among single mothers and their children by creating a legally enforceable child support duty.... One reason for the divergent fortunes of men and women after a divorce was that the transformations in the American conception of children from wage earners to dependents (dependents = children & ex-wives) who needed constant nurturing and the trend toward maternal preference in custody decisions combined to require divorced women to bear the burden of raising children since they where not allowed to work.... American courts in the nineteenth century invented a parental child support obligation in the context of increasing concerns about dependency among single mothers since U.S. culture discriminated against women in the workforce (i.e. women were not allowed to work).... When single motherhood began to emerge in nineteenth-century America, the judiciary was the only institution of the American state that could deal with dependency among single mothers and their children: The poor laws were being overwhelmed by population growth and urbanization, and private charities and state poor-relief agencies had not yet appeared. The first child support statutes built on this judicial innovation, codifying a child support system that relied primarily on payments from absent parents (fathers), instead of on public supports for families." Hansen.
Development of criminal law for failing to support children
New Jersey statute, 1884
Compilation of statutes, 1886
Bowen v. State of Ohio, 1887
State v. Peabody, Rhode Island, 1903
"By 1886, 11 states had made it a penal offense for a father to abandon or refuse to support his minor children. Typically, it still needed evidence that without this support the children would be a cost to the community. Examples of states taking action because fathers were criminally responsible for allowing children to become a public charge. The New York statute punished nonsupporting fathers with imprisonment and hard labor." Hansen.
Social Security Act of 1935 (Public Law 74-271)
This included aid for "Dependent Children". ADC (later AFDC; F = Families) established a partnership between the federal government and the states by providing appropriations to those states which adopted plans approved by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The states in turn provided a minimum monthly subsistence payment to families meeting established need requirements (such as an absent parent not providing support). This later gradually drove child support enforcement, in order to reduce expenditure on AFDC (see events below). "Care for children" becomes one of the few entitlements for welfare. Compared with other countries, this tends to make "child support by parents" a prominent objective.
December 11, 1941 - U.S. declares war on Germany - WWII begins for U.S.
Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act (URESA), 1950
This act has been enacted in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The purpose of URESA was to provide a system for the interstate enforcement of support orders without requiring the person seeking support to go (or have her legal representative go) to the State in which the noncustodial parent resided. Where the URESA provisions between the two States are compatible, the law can be used to establish paternity, locate an absent parent, and establish, modify, or enforce a support order across State lines.
Social Security Act Amendments of 1950 (Public Law 81-734), 1950
The law required state welfare agencies to notify law enforcement officials when providing AFDC to a child. (Presumably, local officials would then undertake to locate nonresident parents and make them pay child support).
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 1964
This law bars discrimination in employment on the basis of race and sex. At the same time it establishes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate complaints and impose penalties.
Executive Order 11375, 1967
Expands President Lyndon Johnson's affirmative action policy of 1965 to cover discrimination based on gender. As a result, federal agencies and contractors must take active measures to ensure that women as well as minorities enjoy the same educational and employment opportunities as white males.
Kind regards,
Doug
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