Any sources to prove that the family court system is sexist?

OnTheBorerland · 2017-09-12T00:46:13+00:00

This gender-neutral way of determining custody, now known as the best interests of the child doctrine, had for its purpose the ideal of taking the decision making of who gets custody out of the hands of the parents and making the children more of a player in the process. Although on the face of it, this movement towards a gender neutral process seemed fair, actual court decisions still heavily favored women, showing to most that Maternal Preference was still the overriding standard. In the 1970’s, the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act tried to define more clearly the ideals of the best interests of the child doctrine by devising a five-factor model, giving children’s wishes more weight within the courts. Despite this, the best interests of the child doctrine is still loosely defined from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and most men argue that Maternal Preference outweighs any attempts at gender neutrality (Bajackson, 2013).

The best interests of the child standard seems, to many, to be more of a feel good philosophy than a concrete rule of procedure. This bias (Maternal Preference) can be argued as still the de jure practice just by looking at the statistical trends of custody decisions. Divorce data shows that there remains a stronger presumption in favor of the Tender Years Doctrine (maternal 17 presumption) than the best interests of the child standard (Reed, 2014). Legally, gender cannot be considered when making custody decisions, meaning both the mother and the father have an equal right to custody. According to Reed (2014, p. 163), “studies throughout the United States of America detailing that in adjudicated custody cases, a mother prevails over 90% of the time, or that she is granted sole custody four times more than the father”. Although these numbers have decreased slightly over time, this substantial divide is the norm throughout the country. In 1992, for instance, fathers were granted sole custody in all adjudicated divorce cases just 8.5% of the time. This is beyond the realm of sheer chance when theoretically, men are afforded the same opportunity in the court rooms, where judges are, by rule of law, using the Best Interest of the Child standard (Cook & Brown, 2006). Due to shared placement, sole custody decreased for the mother in 2001 to 59%, yet fathers still were granted sole custody only 7.1% of the time. (Cook & Brown, 2006). If the couples were unmarried, the numbers were even more extreme. In 1992, for instance, the mother was granted sole custody 99% of the time and the other 1% was shared custody. This means that within the context of the study, the father was never granted sole custody (Cook & Brown, 2006).

That number decreased to 97% for mothers gaining sole custody in 2001, with shared custody in 2% of the cases and the father gaining custody in 1% of the cases. Based on past research, it is questionable whether the best interest standard is being fairly applied (Cook & Brown, 2006). This seeming departure from judicial rules and protocol, whether it be labeled gender bias or not, shows that the Tender Years Doctrine may be a more common approach, years after the government legislated it out of the states’ statutes. 18

Other studies have shown similar results. According to Joan Kelly’s research, numbers have stabilized since the 1970’s, where women have been given sole custody approximately 85% of the time (Kelly 1994). A 1989 study of over 24,000 divorcing couples conducted by the Massachusetts judiciary showed that the mother was given custody nearly 94% of the time. Although this study was conducted over 20 years ago, the standards conducted are the same today and the numbers, although slightly less extreme, are still very slanted to the mother (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court 1989). The U.S. Census Bureau shows that in 2009, over 80% of custodial parents are women (Grall 2011).

Courts have argued that these skewed results are not a form of bias and are justified by saying that the Best Interest of the Child is to be with the mother (Reed, 2014). Perceptually and empirically, the Tender Years Doctrine is still being applied by judges.

Statistically, the judge’s unwillingness to conform to state statutes is clear cut. Knowing the subjectivity of the best interests of the child standard, however, does not clear judges of scrutiny from accusations of bias in still using the Maternal Preference as the rule. Statistically, the judge’s unwillingness to depart from the maternal presumption and conform to state statutes is clear cut. Research cited earlier in this literature review has already shown the 90% rate at which the mother is granted sole custody in adjudicated custody cases (Reed, 2014). Other findings within this study have also been similar and range from 80 to 94% (Kelly 1994; Grall 2011. Hughes, J.R. (2000), estimates that women are granted custody up to 88% of the time and although the findings differ slightly, the end result remains the same. The U.S. Census Bureau shows the breakdown of adjudicated cases through 2007 in the graph below (U.S. Census Bureau, 2007). In Illinois, where the research for this thesis will take place, “mothers were awarded custody in nine out of ten instances” (Abraham, 1987, p. 332). That statistic has remained relatively unchanged over the years. “Exact projections of custody disputes determined by court litigation are difficult to calculate, but large-scale empirical studies completed in different jurisdictions have found that 6-20% of all child custody cases are eventually decided in the courtroom” (Krauss & Sales 2000)

http://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1631&context=etd

2017-09-12T02:42:13+00:00

Justice Canada publishes it...

Source_or_gtfo · 2017-09-12T08:09:51+00:00

http://umass.worldcat.org/title/maternal-preference-in-child-custody-decisions/oclc/4902608297&referer=brief_results

http://www.fathers-4-justice.org/about-f4j/fact-sheet/

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/doctoral-thesis-confirms-poor-outcomes-produced-by-our-family-court-system-1.1625873

https://archive.is/lcvpn

Juan_Golt · 2017-09-14T06:11:08+00:00

It is not complicated. Mothers have parental rights by default. Fathers do not.

A father you can only gain parenting rights with the mother's agreement or litigation. Mothers have parenting rights by default unless they are taken away.

aussietoads · 2017-09-12T00:33:45+00:00

How about you actually spending some time and effort doing your own research first.

Title	Any sources to prove that the family court system is sexist?
Author	SkepticalSkepticist
Upvotes	14
Comments	8
Date	September 12, 2017 12:03 AM UTC (8 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/6zjcwj/any_sources_to_prove_that_the_family_court_system/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/any-sources-to-prove-that-the-family-court-system.1175495 https://theredarchive.com/post/1175495

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