This study focuses on the criminalization of fatherhood through the child support system. By analyzing the changes or lack thereof in child support law, I use critical race theory and a culture of poverty framework to analyze how African American fathers are affected in family court because of cultural differences, social location, and lack of access to resources. Further, I use case law and discourse analysis to examine attributes that make African American men vulnerable to paternity fraud and how changes or lack of changes in the law disproportionately affect African American men. I conclude that the law must take social sciences into consideration when real differences occur within a quasi-safe space known as our judicial system. It is imperative to maintain parent child relationships where appropriate and acknowledge limitations on procreative freedoms when those relationships are created under false pretenses. The imperatives of maintaining stable parent-child relationships, of not punishing inherent procreative freedoms, and of incorporating social science research into better understanding the implications of current judicial legislation and practices are the most salient findings of the research.
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