Failing Our Fathers

Confronting the Crisis of Economically Vulnerable Nonresident Fathers

Ronald B Mincy author Monique Jethwani-Keyser author Serena Klempin author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:15th Jan '15

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Failing Our Fathers cover

Maligned as ¨deadbeat dads¨ or sexually and financially irresponsible, inner-city fathers and overlooked in discussions of poverty and family policy, economically vulnerable nonresident fathers are a greatly misunderstood population. Failing our Fathers summarizes the most recent rigorous and ethnographic research and fills in important gaps with new analyses. The result is a comprehensive picture of who these fathers are, what types of relationships they have with their families and children, and the challenges they face meeting what they, taxpayers and their children and families expect from them. The book argues that in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 Great Mancession, nearly 6 million - almost one of every eleven - men will be unable to provide financial and other kinds of support for their children who live elsewhere. This population is far larger than the inner city, unmarried, Black and Latino men who have been the focus of the debate on disadvantaged fathers. Because so few could reduce the child support obligations that built up during the mass unemployment and incarceration over the previous two decades, they have long-term debts, which they may never be able to pay. Nevertheless, they play active roles as friends, mentors, educators, and disciplinarians for their children and they want to do more. However, they face several challenges, including: time and distance, new family obligations, contentious relationships with children's mothers - who just as often have new partners and children of their own - and personal problems with drugs, alcohol and past or present jail time. Besides requiring these fathers to support their children, we must enable them to do so in ways that parallel how we require and enable vulnerable single mothers to do the same. The book lays out specific reforms required to do this and practical tips for those who are Fathering without Means.

Rarely does one book paint a clear, concise, and lucid understanding of a population. As the research and scholarship on responsible fatherhood continue to grow, a greater understanding emerges bridging child welfare and father involvement.Failing Our Fathersadds to this understanding by defining the world of vulnerable nonresident fathers in their own words. * Social Work *
The volume broadens our recognition and deepens our understanding of nonresident fatherhood by expanding the lens from which economic vulnerability is examined, the myriad of mechanisms and life course events that characterize their respective plights and struggles. The qualitative insights will yield an enhanced discourse on their lives as fathers and life course experiences as parents. * Waldo E. Johnson, Jr., Ph.D., MSW, Social of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago *

ISBN: 9780199371143

Dimensions: 236mm x 157mm x 20mm

Weight: 476g

208 pages