What is child support science?
In fact, I haven’t noticed much discussion on the question at all. So, why is it important? There is confusion as to whether current child support guidelines give reasonable results and whether their foundation is valid. Some courts have given up on reason and declared the very concept of child support to be “subjective.” Others have a desire to be very objective in the development of child support guidelines. When presenting number tables developed using statistical tricks, some guideline developers claim that what they have built is the result of “science.” Others claim that the numbers that have been delivered are pure nonsense. The controversy exists even though it has not yet been widely recognized and discussed. Differing views are held and widespread confusion is likely to remain so long as we do not develop a deeper collaborative understanding of the science of child support. Without discussion and consensus at a basic level, we can expect the variety of specialists (lawyers, e
