Such a solution, if successfully implemented, would decrease the immense gender gap that still exists in the traditional American family stereotype in which the mother has to take care of the children with a father that has a rather limited implication. Another proposal to increase consistency of noncustodial fathers paying their child support relates to punitive measures (revocation of driver's license, etc.) and direct withholding from paychecks and income tax returns. Empirical data shows that these measure have had a mixed success. In many cases "paycheck withholding is effective" (3) but most of the times work for fathers who believe that the decision to pay child support is not fair, whilst in the case of those that agreed to this decision, such measures are not successful on the long run. Other punitive measure have proved successful over the years like immediate withholding, criminal penalties, tax intercepts, and the ability to place liens against property but usually in the case of individuals that have incomes allowing them to actually pay these amounts.

Another solution that goes both into what fathers perceive as fair and more or less goes for the financial contribution issue is standardizing child support obligations. Lin argues for "reducing deviations from child support guidelines, and fully implement routine income withholding. If the child support system employed more uniform guidelines and if fewer exceptions were made, acom pliance "climate" or "norm" might develop, similar to that in the social security and incometax systems. (Lin, 2000, p. 396)

Similar to the Shackelford analysis, Meyer and Bartfeld argue that besides socio-psychological solution, socio-economic ones might be more beneficial. Series of trainings and professional assistance...

The rough economic environment which our societies currently face mean less job opportunities in underdeveloped communities. (5) As the 2009 census looks, most deadbeat fathers come from such communities and in most of the cases the reasons for not paying child support debts are the low probability of finding a job.
As a conclusion, it is important for the State to identify the best strategy to prevent deadbeat fathers to be imprisoned in the case their inability to pay is caused by objective reasons through various job related trainings and even some sort of long-term loans. Obviously, for the rest of fathers it is imperative that they understand their responsibilities as parents of those children and that they pay their share without the need of punitive measures against them.

Bibliography

Lin, I.-F. (2000). Perceived fairness and compliance with child support obligations.

Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62

McElroy, W. (2004) In Defense of "Deadbeat" Dads. FoxNews. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,127958,00.html

Meyer, D.R., & Bartfeld, J. (1998). Patterns of child support compliance in Wisconsin. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60

Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. & Schmitt, D. (2005) An Evolutionary Perspective on Why Some Men Refuse or Reduce Their Child Support Payments. Basic and applied social psychology, 27 (4)

US Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistical Administration (2009) Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2007 Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p60-237.pdf