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Authoritarian regimes are no longer seen as the leading examples of a human-rights violator. Instead, that despicable label is applied increasingly to private individuals who defy various social policies related to the family, gender relations, and sexuality. Adapted from the source document.

Calls attention to the 2006 National Center for Health Statistics report that shows record-high out-of-wedlock births & a decrease in married couple households to argue that welfare reform has not only failed to encourage marriage & two-parent families but public assistance has become a "miniature penal apparatus, replete with its own tribunals, prosecutors, police, & punishments." It is contended that current trends lend credence to the warning that welfare-state principles would eventually threaten both economic prosperity & civil freedom. Ways in which the replacement of welfare with child support has transformed welfare from public assistance into law enforcement are pointed out, along with the growth of the collection machinery for "deadbeat dads"; incidents of federal officials interfering in state ballot initiatives; & heavy-handed child support enforcement methods that violate constitutional protections. Emphasis is placed on the need to rein in the welfare state by confronting the child-support system's destruction of families & the criminalization of parents. References. J. Lindroth

Analyzes the gender bias of family courts against fathers in cases of child custody & support payments after divorce. Examines the criminalization, in essence, of fathers through the family court legal system. The sources of national concern about a fatherhood crisis in the US (cases of deadbeat dads, violation of restraining orders, & child abuse) are summarized. The basic operation of family courts in divorces cases is described briefly, & then the ease through which courts accept allegations of child abuse & hand down punitive measures to fathers is discussed. The section following examines the political process of setting child support levels, the guidelines established by courts & enforcement agencies. The economic benefits of chasing deadbeat dads are also looked at to examine the effect of monetary benefits enforcement & collection agencies derive from the process on the system. The sources of policies dealing with divorce procedures are examined, along with the affect the policies have on many fathers. In conclusion, in the concoction of a fatherhood crisis where none existed previously, the government at all levels has nurtured the cause of many social problems -- fatherlessness -- essentially creating a new set of unlimited problems for it to solve. 95 References. M. James