The Hidden Costs of Monetary Sanctions and Child Support Debt: Children’s Economic Standing and Educational Performance

• In Event: 21059 - New Directions in Prison and Carceral Studies

Abstract

Courts routinely impose monetary sanctions on defendants, many of whom are parents of young children. This study examines how these debts impact the financial well-being and educational performance of children. In doing so, we build upon important lines of research on financial obligations in the child support system (Haney 2018) and in the criminal legal system (Harris 2016). Generalizing from studies of parental incarceration and child outcomes, we assess the hidden costs of monetary sanctions on children. To examine these questions, we link administrative data from the Minnesota State Court Administrator’s Office and the Minnesota Department of Human Services to identify parents who owe “dual debt” in both the child support and criminal justice systems. We then merge these parent-level data with child-level annual testing data from the Minnesota Department of Education. We find elevated rates of free-and-reduced lunch eligibility and a decline in reading and mathematics proficiency among the children of “dual debt” parents. These findings suggest that the multigenerational costs of these intersecting systems should be considered in combination rather than isolation, particularly for justice-involved non-custodial parents and their children.

Authors

• Christopher Uggen, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

• Ryan Paul Larson, Hamline University

• Robert Stewart, University of Maryland-College Park

• Veronica L. Horowitz, University at Buffalo