Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Effects of Jailing Noncustodial Parents for Failure to Pay Child Support

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Jailing for child support nonpayment is one of many possible mechanisms of child support enforcement, but little is known about how frequently this tactic is used, against whom, and what the consequences are. This project, then, has three aims: first, to provide a quantitative overview of jail for child support nonpayment using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW); second, to understand the processes by which courts decide whom to jail for child support nonpayment; third, to understand how families experience punitive child support enforcement and what the consequences of this enforcement tactic might be.Using a mixed methods design, this project explores the frequency, distribution, process, and consequences of jail for child support nonpayment. The researchers will perform court observation in two Texas counties and conduct in-depth interviews with custodial and noncustodial parents. This approach will explain how interpersonal and jurisdictional-level factors interact with individual characteristics to shape an individual's risk of being jailed.