Deadbeats or Beatdeads? 
Society's numerous False Images of Divorced Fathers 



"The realization that the engine generating fatherless children is not the fathers, but the state, takes on implications few have dared to confront."   Dr. Stephen Baskerville

While some divorced fathers don't want to be, or remain, involved with their children after divorce, the statistics show that Most do.  It is also a fact that many of those Dads (or former Dads) who wanted to remain involved were literally FORCED out of their child's lives by angry, malicious, and/or ignorant moms, and by (or with the help of) Apathetic, Greedy, and/or Unjust (so-called) "Family Courts"  and the evil people who work in them.   I know because I am one of them. And because I observed what they are doing, up close, for over Five Years.  

All together, they used my Daughter, and the Love that I have for her to Generate about $120,000  dollars, and they WANTED MORE MONEY for me to be her Dad; however, rather than continue to FUND their Child-Trafficking Scam, when I saw that they Really Didn't care about anything other than how to spin anything and everything into More and More Loot, I walked away from the relationship that I had with my Daughter, and began to investigate what was going on, and how it is that our courts could be so corrupt.

And in that process, I have discovered that Divorced Fathers have been given a "bad rap," and slandered to no end by apathetic, ignorant, and/or corrupt government officials, the media, and feminists groups who helped them set up the system that we now have.

For example, Dr. Sanford Braver and his team of researchers were the first researchers to interview both mothers and fathers who were divorcing.  They did so for eight years: their first set of parents were from 378 different families, and which they followed for three years.  And what they discovered consisted of six different "myths" that feminists and the media had succeeded in labeling (or mislabeling) with regard to divorced fathers.  These consisted of the following: 

  1. That Divorced Dads are Deadbeat Dads

  2. That Divorced Dads are Runaway Dads

  3. That Divorced Dads Impoverish their former wives and Children

  4. That Divorce Settlements tilt unfairly in favor of Divorced Fathers

  5. That Fathers are better off emotionally than their Ex-wives and Children after a divorce

  6. That Fathers are the ones who most commonly initiate Divorce proceedings 

Each of these are discussed in detail in a book that was subsequently written by Dr. Sanford Braver and Dianne O'Connell called Divorced Dads: Shattering the Myths.  

For example, Dr. Braver discovered that there are only two primary reasons why fathers stop paying child support:

  1. Because they lose their jobs, and

  2. Because they can't see, or "visit" with their own kids: that were taken away by corrupt "family courts."

He also stated on page 175 of his book something else that is not commonly known, i.e. that: 

"In a large proportion of divorces, the mother sees little value in any contact between child and father.  She doesn't want to have to accommodate his desires or tastes as a father.  Instead, she wishes to be rid of him and his influence ..."

In her book on divorce,  Adryenn Ashley  stated that:

"There are also some sinister factors in play that often mean your case is decided based on how much money the court will get in grant money, and how much incentive funding the child support agency will earn ... (for the state) ..." p. 160

And : "Since you cannot predict the outcome, you must do everything possible to stay out of family court."   p. 161

In other words, she is telling you to do your best to compromise and (if possible) come to an agreement, before going to court.  One reason for this is because MANY of the people who work there: including attorneys, therapists, and Private / LCSW social workers are there for the Money and little else. 

More telling are Donna Laframboise's  comments on this topic.  I quote them below.

" ...  studies ... indicate the vast majority of divorced men meet their obligations — and that those who don't often have good reasons. According to Roger Gay, an internationally recognized child-support expert based in Stockholm, the only meaningful child-support statistic is the percentage of support ordered by the courts that actually gets paid. In the U.S., he says, "fathers overall pay between 70% and 80% of what is due." What's more, the highly publicized garnishments, suspension of drivers' licenses, revocation of passports and jail sentences have accomplished little. Despite the efforts of the 50,000 people employed by the U.S. child-support collection bureaucracy — which costs $4-billion a year — Mr. Gay says the percentage of child support paid hasn't changed since the mid-'70s. "We've let too many years go by without admitting to the public that these measures have been a failure."

"The difficulty in collecting the remaining 20% to 30% is due largely to the fact that the war against deadbeats is really a war against the poor — against men who have always been economically marginal or have been impoverished by the divorce process itself. According to the Institute on Poverty, half of non-paying fathers in Wisconsin earn less than $6,200 a year and only one in 10 earns more than $18,500 annually. Other research shows the unemployment rate is one of the most accurate predictors of child-support compliance. (Although even then, half the men who were out of work in one sample still managed to pay the full amount of support.)"

"At the same time that society is demanding divorced dads pay up, our courts, governments and social services fail to recognize the huge effect losing daily contact with one's children has on men's ability to earn a living. 'No government and no court should be allowed to take a child from a parent unless there is a very, very, very good reason,' says Dr. McBride. 'Because to have a child ripped from you, it's the same as a child dying. It's absolutely uncivilized, barbaric and devastating for any parent. It's not uncommon for these people to suffer depressive breakdowns.'  And while a large, expensive system exists to collect child support from divorced fathers, no parallel system helps ensure children's and father's rights to close and frequent contact."

And that about sums up what is, and has been taking place in North American and much of Europe for the past 25-30 years.  

Randy S. Berg, 2012, 2014

Much more truth can be gleaned on this subject from the following Links.

Deadbroke Dads, Donna Laframboise
The Myth of Deadbeat Dads
, by Stuart Miller, 1998  
A 'Carrot' for  Deadbeat Dads, by Catherine Rampell
The Myth of Deadbeat Dads, by Stephen Baskerville, 2002
Myth of the Deadbeat Dad
, Reader's Digest, 2001, by Donna Laframboise
Deadbeat Dads more myth than reality, by Kathleen Parker, the Orlando Sentinel

Here is something that may help:
  Father's Guide to Winning the Divorce War
State-sponsored Malfeasance or Organized Crime?

See also:
www.familycourtcrooks.com