Are there any up-to-date statistics on child custody? "Fathers who actively seek custody obtain either primary or joint physical custody over 70% of the time." - New England Law Review (1990)

Hirudin · 2012-12-20T17:06:44+00:00

Thats a misrepresented stat. - that guy Amptoons is a feminist, so expect lies.

Here is the truth.

On June 23, 1989, an article on the front-page of the Boston Globe announced that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had just released their report on a study they had commissioned on gender bias in the court system. In that same day's edition, columnist Bella English wrote, "In fact, the study found that when fathers seek custody, they obtain either primary or joint physical custody over 70 percent of the time." The obvious implication here is that if fathers seldom get custody, it's their own fault for not caring enough about their kids to fight for them.

The day after I read that the report had been released, I called the SJC's offices to request a copy of the report. Oddly, they told me that all copies of this brand new report had already been distributed, and it was no longer available. I called back every six months or so, hoping it had been reprinted. Four years later they finally told me it had been reprinted, and mailed me a copy. I've since heard speculation that someone else may have pried it loose under threat of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

With the report finally in hand, I quickly located the section where the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court's Gender Bias Committee wrote, "Refuting complaints that the bias in favor of mothers was pervasive, we found that fathers who actively seek custody obtain either primary or joint physical custody over 70% of the time." And I was finally able to start tracking the basis on which they made that claim.

It took a number of phone calls for me to locate the researcher whose study the SJC cited in support of their 70% claim. But I was eventually able to speak with her, and she told me that her data do not demonstrate court bias, and her research was never even designed to address the question. She also was kind enough to mail me a copy of her own published article on her study.

Based on that, I did my own analysis and found that the very same data cited by the SJC as evidence of court bias against mothers also shows that when mothers sought sole custody, the court granted the request at a rate 65% higher than it did when fathers made the same request. Click here to read my detailed analysis or click here to download a printer-friendly copy.

The SJC's claim regarding court bias in custody cases appears less like objective research than like an exercise in manipulating numbers to sound like they prove anti-woman bias. But it has been effective nonetheless. For the last decade and an half, it has been repeated in newspapers all across the U.S. and Canada, cited in Ann Landers' column, stated as fact in the National Center on Poverty Law's manual for lawyers. And it gets trotted out whenever anyone proposes that any state adopt a presumption in favor of joint custody.

see the rest here

http://www.breakingthescience.org/SJC_GBC_analysis_intro.php

RedditBlueit · 2012-12-20T16:14:52+00:00

I'd love to see a study of the legal fees for divorces, broken out by who receives custody. When the father is paying for all three lawyers (his, hers, and the kids' guardian ad litem), its pretty easy to get him to accept limited custody by running up the bill.

Ps yes, I know the guardian ad litem isn't always a lawyer. That seems to be the custom in this state.

TracyMorganFreeman · 2012-12-20T19:16:53+00:00

It's dishonest because they conflate joint and sole custody, and fail to distinguish physical and legal custody.

Secondly, they seem to be very wrong

They also apparently also fail to distinguish between mediation and trial, and reports also fail to point out that even if we grant combining joint/sole custody as a valid metric, when going to trial fathers get it 51% of the time versus mothers 84% of the time, where with mediation it's 31% for fathers versus 88% for mothers.

Demonspawn · 2012-12-20T16:08:25+00:00

And yet not sourced in the report.

FYI I know where it comes from because I've seen it before. Once you trace it back thru 10-15 sources, you'll find the original "source" is a book written by a feminist who interviewed single mothers.

rightsbot · 2012-12-20T15:56:19+00:00

Post text automatically copied here. (Why?) (Report a problem.)

truthjusticeca · 2012-12-20T16:57:13+00:00

I know that in Canada that ~95% of disputed custody cases are awarded to the mother. Other than that there is a severe lack of statistics.

Current case precedent is that if joint custody is disputed then the judge will award primary custody to the primary caregiver (whoever works less hours outside the home - usually mother)

Joint custody is only awarded when it is agreed by both parents.

DavidByron · 2012-12-20T21:47:27+00:00

People who jump off a cliff achieve flying or dropping like a stone 70% of the time.

Joint physical custody = kid staying with mother, right?

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