Deadbeat Dads or Debtor’s Prison? Jailing for Child Support Nonpayment

• In Event: 033 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. Punishment and Incarceration 2

Abstract

On April 7, 2015 in North Charleston, S.C., Walter Scott was shot eight times in the back as he fled from a routine traffic stop. According to an attorney for the family, Mr. Scott fled because he owed child support arrears and did not want these arrears to send him back to jail (Schmidt & Apuzzo 2015). This incident points to the understudied connection between child support enforcement and the criminal justice system. Putting non-custodial parents in jail for failure to pay child support is one of the many tools of child support enforcement that the state possesses. But little is known about how frequently this tactic is used, against whom, and what the ramifications are (Patterson 2008). Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW), this working paper explores who goes to jail for child support nonpayment.

Author

• Elizabeth Cozzolino, University of Texas at Austin