Child Custody Law Research Articles

Forms of exclusion in child custody law

This article examines how and to what degree child custody law curtails contact with children by parents who exhibit socially undesirable behavior. It briefly reviews the historical development of custody law, noting the ways in which changing social judgments have shaped legal doctrine. Current custody law is then examined from the same perspective, revealing that similar forces continue to affect the content, form, and consequences of child custody law. Finally, the article identifies increasing normative pressures, supported by recent findings from the behavioral sciences, that favor maintaining a child's contact with its natural family. The article concludes that the degree to which this development will effectively supplant more traditional efforts to ostracize some family members remains to be seen.

The child custody evaluation: Issues and trends

Custody disputes are often the crisis point in the divorcing process and the numbers of contested custody cases are increasing. Mental health professionals are being called upon to provide evaluations of these families more frequently than ever. This article focuses on how to perform child custody evaluations. It touches on the highly troublesome cases where accusations of abuse and alcoholism have been made, and how to convey to attorneys the findings of an evaluation. It begins by reviewing developments in child custody law and concludes by addressing the problems between behavioral sciences and the law in these stressful cases. The presentation of clinical examples provides a view of the decision making process, while addressing the contextual setting for these cases as well.

An overview of child custody laws.

The increasing divorce rate, the large number of women in the workforce, and the expanded role of fathers in parenting have led to a dramatic increase in child custody litigation. The law has responded to this growing problem in many ways, the foremost being to shift the emphasis of child custody laws from the rights of the parents to the needs of the child. The author traces the development of child custody laws from English common law, which granted custody to fathers, to the present best-interests-of-the-child standard. Criteria for evaluating the child's best interests, legislation to reduce postdecree litigation and child snatching, and approaches to ease the pain of family breakups, such as joint custody and divorce mediation, are among the many facets of present laws discussed by the author.

Family law issues in family therapy practice

Abstract The American Journal of Family Therapy is pleased to innaugurate this new section with the intent of being at the cutting edge of the interface of the interrelationship of family law and family therapy. We introduce this endeavor with several articles on child custody-an arena of crucial concern in both disciplines. One article is a summary of child custody laws extant throu hout the United States. to commend it psychologically and legally. The third item, in keeping with the theme, is a speculative fable about joint custody written by a matrimonial attorney who practices family mediation and who has training as a family therapist. It captures the tenor of the times. The second article discusses a model for child custody ev a f uations, which has much

Summary of the child custody laws for the fifty states

Abstract The essential stipulations in laws relating to custody determination are summarized in Table form. Issues of joint or shared custody, the principle of the best interests of the child, Uniform Child Custody Act, and the acceptance of psychological investigations of the child and his or her family are discussed and summarized.

Dependent Children, Child Custody, and the Mothers' Pensions: The Transformation of State-Family Relations in the Early 20th Century

This paper challenges the widely-held belief that government has assumed increasing authority over family life in the United States. I explore the origins and development of welfare services for dependent children from the indenture system of the colonial days to the introduction of mothers' pensions in the early 20th century. Rather than intruding more into family life, government has moved from an initial disregard of the family unit to a reinforcing of parent-child ties by supporting the custody rights of the mother. Commentators on the modern family frequently lament the progressive intrusion of government into family affairs and the resulting reduction of parental decision-making and control. A growing body of literature portrays powerless parents facing expanding government authority over the family (Donzelot, 1979; Keniston, 1978; Lasch, 1977, 1979). This paper challenges the hypothesis that government has steadily increased its prerogatives and control over children at the expense of the traditional rights of parents. To test this hypothesis, I explore the origin and evolution of government programs for dependent children in the United States from colonial times to the first decades of the 20th century. I focus on child custody, since the ability of the state to make children public wards is at the heart of competing rights between parents and the state. This paper also emphasizes: (1) class variables that organize relations between parents and the state; and (2) changes in the relative status of women which have influenced government policies. Research presented here on early government programs for dependent children suggests that, rather than progressively eroding traditional parental rights, the state has sometimes supported family unity and parental prerogatives. State intrusions into the domestic affairs of families needing income assistance have become less direct and less disruptive of parent-child relationships over time. The Mothers' Pension program, an early 20th century public assistance program, gave parents child custody rights they had earlier been denied and buttressed family relations that otherwise would have been broken. This paper is divided into three sections. The first surveys the treatment of dependent children from colonial times to the late 19th century. The second concentrates on changes in child custody laws, women's changing family roles, and the consequences of both for the care of dependent children. The third section describes the development of the Mothers' Pension program and its effects on child custody and relations between working class families and the state. I single out the Mothers' Pension program because it was an important precursor of the largest federally supported government service for families, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC).'

New child custody laws: making them do what they say.

Book reviewed in this article: Michigan's new child custody law is examined in terms of its meaning and its application by the courts, and the general relationship of laws, courts and behavioral scientists to the resolution of custody disputes is explored. The authors urge development of innovative programs that will maximize chances of properly assessing the “best interests of the child.” An existing program involving judges, lawyers, and behavioral scientists is described.

Child custody laws: their psychiatric implications.

The author believes the time has come for psychiatrists and other behavioral scientists to reevaluate their roles in assisting the legal system in child custody cases. The State of Michigan recently proceeded in this direction by passing the Child Custody Act of 1970. Written with the help of behavioral scientists, the act cites ten parameters that give the courts flexibility in determining the "best interests of the child." The Friend of the Court system is currently helping to make the theory of the new law a practical realization in at least one Michigan jurisdiction.

Refugees from Inside the System: Iraqi Divorcees in Jordan

Based on fieldwork with Iraqi women who married and then divorced Jordanian men and are now registered refugees in Jordan, this study explores the relationship between marriage and immigration laws and refugee status for Iraqis in the country. The legal systems effectively fence the divorced women in, with child custody laws preventing them from leaving and citizenship laws preventing them from securing long-term residency. Jordan’s citizenship and immigration laws collude with family law traditions that assume women’s dependence on their husbands to magnify divorced Iraqi women’s social exclusion. As Iraqi refugees extend their stays in the country, Jordan’s “guests” and their needs have become part of the domestic social landscape; structural refusal to acknowledge their presence contributes to their isolation and invisibility. This case suggests that citizenship laws that differentiate between men and women create gendered refugees as well as gendered citizens.