Testing a New Approach to Addressing Nonpayment of Child Support: Effects of the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt Demonstration

Some child support policymakers and researchers have recently questioned the fairness and effectiveness of pursuing civil contempt to secure child support payments, particularly for parents with low incomes. The Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) demonstration tested a different approach to improving child support payments. Developed by the Office of Child Support Enforcement, PJAC integrated principles of procedural justice (the idea of fairness in processes) into enforcement practices in six child support agencies across the United States as an alternative to standard contempt proceedings. The PJAC demonstration project used a random assignment research design; parents who had reached a contempt referral were assigned either to a PJAC services group, which had access to child support services informed by procedural justice, or to a business-as-usual group, which proceeded to the standard contempt process. This report compares the outcomes of parents in these two groups.