A father's role in the family has been defined in various ways throughout the history of the United States. The English heritage of the first settlers encouraged patriarchal rule in the family. As changing technology spurred the Industrial Revolution, the father was propelled out of the home and into the workplace, and his role became that of breadwinner. Consequently, mothers soon found their authority in the home heightened. Both parents left the home when the World War II effort urged citizens into the factories and offices to serve the United States in a time of crisis. This again led to a more aggressive female presence in society as well as the family. As the father's role in the family changed, so did the laws reflecting the father's rights. Today the line is skewed, as more often the establishment of paternity becomes a difficult process no longer defined by the old standards of marriage or adoption. This text discusses the changes in paternity laws over time and the ways in which each era's societal norms have been reflected in those laws. Custody, legitimacy, adoption and paternity are examined from a legal standpoint. Child support, visitation scheduling and third party parenting and visitation rights are also discussed. Finally, current trends that affect paternity laws are examined. Major cases, statutes and model acts that exemplify changes in paternity laws are listed in three appendices.

“In this rigorous and beautifully researched volume, Milanich considers the tension between social and biological definitions of fatherhood, and shows how much we still have to learn about what constitutes a father.” —Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity For most of human history, the notion that paternity was uncertain appeared to be an immutable law of nature. The unknown father provided entertaining plotlines from Shakespeare to the Victorian novelists and lay at the heart of inheritance and child support disputes. But in the 1920s new scientific advances promised to solve the mystery of paternity once and for all. The stakes were high: fatherhood has always been a public relationship as well as a private one. It confers not only patrimony and legitimacy but also a name, nationality, and identity. The new science of paternity, with methods such as blood typing, fingerprinting, and facial analysis, would bring clarity to the conundrum of fatherhood—or so it appeared. Suddenly, it would be possible to establish family relationships, expose adulterous affairs, locate errant fathers, unravel baby mix-ups, and discover one’s true race and ethnicity. Tracing the scientific quest for the father up to the present, with the advent of seemingly foolproof DNA analysis, Nara Milanich shows that the effort to establish biological truth has not ended the quest for the father. Rather, scientific certainty has revealed the fundamentally social, cultural, and political nature of paternity. As Paternity shows, in the age of modern genetics the answer to the question “Who’s your father?” remains as complicated as ever.

Essays on policies, programs, and ethical issues.

Trapped By LAW: Stop Paying Child Support for Paternity Fraud shares the true-life account of Carnell Smith's fight to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) against archaic unjust laws that entrap then resist releasing men and teen boys that have been falsely accused of the paternity of a child. There are at least four ways that men and boys are caught in a Paternity Fraud Trap1) Signing a Paternity Confession Document and;2) Incorrect Default Paternity Judgment and;3) Marital Presumption of Paternity and;4) Mistaken Identity. Yet, the family courts with active demands from the Offices of Child Support Enforcement Offices (OCSE), Prosecutors and the State Attorney General offices adamantly refuse to release men and boys to get DNA testing done and will not release those with zero percent paternity results who have wrongly named as the father of a child that he did not create nor adopt. There are millions of dollars $$ in State revenue through OCSE using the Federal Title IV-D program incentives and bonuses for establishing paternity with a child support order. It's quite profitable for the involved State Department of Revenue when the Family Courts enforce the collections for paternity fraud judgments. Carnell Smith won his case by changing the law that bound him and thousands of other men and boys, despite being denied justice by the Supreme Court of the United States and every appellate court in Georgia. Learn more about working with Carnell Smith, Author, and the Paternity Coach.