Child Custody Research at the Crossroads: Issues for a New Century

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511500114.007

7 - Child Custody Research at the Crossroads: Issues for a New Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2009

Charlene E. Depner

Edited by

Bette L. Bottoms ,

Margaret Bull Kovera and

Bradley D. McAuliff

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Charlene E. Depner: Affiliation:
Supervisor of Research and Grant Programs Center for Families, Children, and the Courts in San Francisco
Bette L. Bottoms: Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Chicago
Margaret Bull Kovera: Affiliation:
Florida International University
Bradley D. McAuliff: Affiliation:
University of Nebraska, Lincoln

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Summary

Domestic relations cases, including divorce, child custody, child support, paternity, domestic violence, and adoption filings, compose the fastest-growing sector of cases that come before our states' courts. The National Center for State Courts reports a 65% increase in domestic relations filings between 1985 and 1997 (Ostrom & Kauder, 1997).

The widesweeping impact of child custody policy and practice is evident when we consider that more than half of all children born today will live apart from one parent at some time during their childhood (Furstenberg & Cherlin, 1991). All of these children are potentially subject to child custody orders. Although a great deal of research has focused on custody following divorce, this literature is not sufficient to advise child custody policy makers. Divorce accounts for little more than half of the children who live in single-parent households. The others are born to parents who do not marry (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992). Child custody cases may enter the courts because a divorce is in progress, a paternity case is being heard, child support orders are being established, or as part of domestic violence restraining orders. Because divorce is only one family law proceeding that involves child custody orders, the term family reorganization is used in this chapter to refer the wider spectrum of family circumstances that lead to child custody decisions.

Type: Chapter
Information: Children, Social Science, and the Law , pp. 153 - 175

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511500114.007 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2002

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