According to The Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health, Paternity Fraud, or as it is sometimes called, Paternity Discrepancy, occurs when a child is biologically fathered by someone other than the man who is identified as the actual father. This can occur when a woman is having an unknown extramarital affair.  It may also occur when a woman has multiple sex partners, but identifies one of them as the father for purposes of receiving an increased amount of child support.  Child support is the financial contribution from the non-custodial parent to the custodial parent towards the expenses of raising the child. Generally child support expenses include the basic necessities such as food, clothing, shelter and medical care.  Every child is entitled to be supported by both parents until they reach the age of majority, usually 18, or become emancipated (free from legal, social or political restrictions).  In Mississippi, the age of emancipation for the purpose of child support is 21.  Child support enforcement is a joint effort of the Federal and State government to help families establish paternity when needed, and obtain and enforce child support orders.  Child support guidelines differ greatly from state to state, but a rough estimate may be obtained by a child support calculator.  Click here to estimate your child support in Mississippi.

Paternity fraud can have enormous psychological consequences. One of the worst paternity results we have given was from a man who had been married for twenty years.  The husband had noticed suspicious behavior in his wife around the time of his last son’s conception, but he never investigated it.  Thirteen years later this husband began notice suspicious behavior in his wife once again.  He hired an investigator and an extramarital affair was discovered. At this time, he decided to have a paternity test conducted on his children.  The results revealed that the youngest child whom he had raised for 13 years was not his biological child.  You can only imagine the emotional pain, heartbreak and anger this family experienced.  While the mother wanted the child to have a more luxurious life, she robbed this child of a relationship with his true biological father and betrayed her husband.  The husband will always be the child’s dad, but he is not the true biological father that he was perceived to be.  Even if the discovery of paternity fraud does not result in the breakup of a relationship or marriage, the psychological trauma inflicted on the child and father can be severe.

While anyone may be a victim of paternity fraud, research indicates that those at the greatest risk for paternity fraud tend to be in lower socioeconomic groups, not married and have multiple sex partners. Some literature suggests that paternity fraud may be as high as 10 percent of the population.  Mississippi law does allow the use of genetic testing to determine the probability of paternity. According to the Mississippi Bar when the probability of fatherhood is at least 98 percent, the court will presume paternity.  Thus, modern genetic testing provides a potent tool for actually proving or disproving paternity fraud.

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According to the National Human Genome Institute, DNA was first observed in the late 1800’s by a German biochemist, Frederich Miescher.  Since that time much has been learned about deoxyribonucleic acid, commonly referred to as DNA.   It is now known that DNA contains the biological instructions that make each species unique.  But nearly a century passed from that discovery until researchers unraveled the structure of the DNA molecule and realized its central importance to biology. There have been significant advancements in DNA technology and testing in the past 10–15 years.  With all of the advancements in DNA testing it is increasingly common to see DNA evidence link a criminal to a crime scene, prove a deceased person’s identity or determine a biological family relationship.  As a direct result of advancements in DNA testing, consumers now find themselves with much more accessibility to this once foreign service.

According to the Mississippi Department of Human Services Annual Fiscal Report, over $314 million in child support was collected in 2011. After hearing this overwhelming figure, it should come as no surprise that one of the most common reasons for DNA testing is to determine a biological relationship between an alleged father and child.  A DNA test conducted to determine this relationship is referred to as a Paternity Test.  According to the Department of Population and Family Health Sciences nearly 300,000 paternity tests were conducted in 2006.  Of these 300,000 tests, nearly 84,000 (28%) of the alleged fathers were excluded as the biological father of the tested child.  The percentage of exclusion varied little across racial and/or ethnic categories.  The highest exclusion was noted among African Americans with nearly 33%, while Native Americans had the lowest exclusion rate at 18%.  The study suggests that the younger the mother, the greater the chance of exclusion.

Governor Haley Barbour signed House Bill 344 in July of 2011, which includes a comprehensive paternity disestablishment bill that lays out a uniform process for when the legal father may or may not disestablish paternity upon negative genetic testing.  This bill extends the amount of time from 60 days to one year that a legal father may rescind a birth certificate acknowledgement.  Once awarded child support in the state of Mississippi it shall continue until the child becomes emancipated.  Emancipation occurs when the child becomes twenty one, marries, joins the military and serves on a full-time basis or is convicted of a felony and is sentenced to incarceration of two or more years for committing such a felony.  Mississippi Code Sections 43-19-101 and 43-19-103 establish guidelines for child support obligations.  These guidelines provide the percentage of the noncustodial parent’s adjusted gross income that should be awarded for child support based on the number of children. In Mississippi, the percentage of the noncustodial parent’s adjusted gross income that should be awarded for child support ranges from 14% for one child and up to 26% for five or more children.

A “Court Admissible Paternity Test,” sometimes referred to as a “Legal Paternity Test,” may be used for child support, inheritance, social welfare benefits, immigration, and/or adoption purposes.  This type of test must be conducted at a laboratory that is accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) for relationship DNA testing and meet strict chain of custody requirements.  All tested parties in a court admissible Paternity Test must be properly identified and specimens must be collected by a third-party professional who is not related to any of the tested parties and has no interest in the outcome of the test.

A “Peace of Mind DNA Test” does not have stringent requirements like the court admissible test; however, the peace of mind test result may not be used in court.  This test may be conducted to give the donor(s) assurance about the evaluated relationship.  An artifact, such as a toothbrush or other item, might be used in lieu of swabbing the donor in a peace of mind test.  A peace of mind test does not require the legal guardian to give consent for the child and may be conducted anonymously.

DNA testing can be a very useful and economical tool for evaluating the relationship between family members, especially between a father and a child.  With court admissible testing options as low as $299, DNA Paternity Tests have all but eliminated any barriers to false accusations over who a child’s biological father is.  While $299 may be a financial barrier to some, this small testing fee pales in comparison to the amount that would be paid in child support or more detrimentally the emotional pain of later discovering that a supposed child or alleged parent is not biologically yours.