Does Stricter Child Support Enforcement Create More Criminal Dads? A Study of the Effect of Child Support Enforcement Policy on Crimes

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) was enacted under Clinton administration to strengthen the child support system and promote parental responsibility through tougher enforcement and paternity establishment. Low-income fathers are particularly hard hit by the enforcement. This paper uses state-level data to analyze the effect of tougher child support enforcement and paternity establishment on crime rates. I find a strong, positive effect between the child support order rate and the introduction of income withholding for child support on crime. But an increase in the paternity establishment rate will lower crime rate.