Shared custody becoming the norm: Study finds dramatic decline in mother-sole custody cases

TracyMorganFreeman · 2014-07-13T22:28:09+00:00

A quick perusal of the pdf seems to show that shared physical custody is increasing, but that doesn't say anything about legal custody.

Further, "shared custody" was defined as "including mother – primary shared custody, equal shared custody, and father – primary shared custody"

Here we show that by 2008, mother – sole custody declined further to 42 %. This decline is largely mirrored by a dramatic increase in shared custody: equal shared custody increased from 5 % to 27 % of all cases, and unequal shared custody increased from 3 % to 18 % of all cases. Most of the unequal shared custody cases — more than 80 % — have children staying with mothers the majority of the time (mother – primary shared custody). There is little change in the share of cases that are awarded father – sole custody: 11 % in 1988 and 9 % in 2008.

So it's largely gone from the mother getting sole custody to less of that and more of the mother getting most of the custody and still considered the custodial parent for tax purposes, which without reading much more at the moment seems like an increase in share custody in mostly just name.

2014-07-14T00:01:21+00:00

They should be cautious about terminology because there are so many different legal definitions. In some states, "Shared Custody" is a joke, and means the mother has physical custody of the children 90% of the time and the man still has to pay child support.

2014-07-14T00:16:44+00:00

Equal shared custody is still only 27 percent -- not at all the norm.

Father sole-custody cases decreased from 11 percent in 1988 to 9 percent in 2008. This, despite the fact that men are more often primary caregivers, and women are more often working.

ZenAdm1n · 2014-07-14T03:33:11+00:00

I divorced last year and got equal custody without a fight. I still have to pay almost $1600 in support because she doesn't make any money. It makes it extremely difficult to maintain a household for my kids. They've been staying with her while I'm at work because the child support plus my basic expenses don't leave any money for daycare. I make far too much money to qualify for assistance but she gets food stamps. She's thinking of going back to school, or finding a job, or just traveling. She hasn't decided, but when she does I will have to start providing child care during the summer and after school.

Marcruise · 2014-07-14T10:04:12+00:00

It's good to see positive news on this. Nonetheless, we should be cautious.

The analysis further shows that shared custody remains more likely for higher income families, while the gender and age of the children involved do not carry much weight.

This is the key bit. To my mind, what it suggests is that what makes the difference is whether you can afford a good lawyer. That is - the default is still mother gets custody, and you need a good lawyer to wrest the decision away from that. The system needs to change so that the presumptive default is shared custody, and deviations from that need to be justified.

I also think analyses of this sort ought to specify the exact ratios involved so we can be clearer about what 'shared' means. If it means 2 Saturdays a month, for instance, that's quite different to 3 days a week. As others have said, they also need to specify if it's physical or legal custody, or both.

It's also worth stressing that you've got a large selection bias in only looking at cases that go to court. If you're a lower middle-class man, you can't afford to do this.

JessicaBurde · 2014-07-13T20:01:53+00:00

Full study is available here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-014-0307-8

I don't have time to read the full study unfortunately. Is anyone familiar with it?

Funcuz · 2014-07-14T09:16:41+00:00

I was going to say that this is great news but then I read the first comment and realized that , as usual, it was pointless to get my hopes up just yet.

Nevertheless, I think it's still a very positive thing. Things are definitely moving in the right direction and it's tangibly apparent.

boy45 · 2014-07-14T14:01:41+00:00

My "shared custody" was 1 day per week (after school only, back home by 7pm), and every other weekend. I fought for equal time, spent $25k in legal fees, and in the end the judge gave me this "generous" arrangement. I had been my kids' athletic coach, tutor, and involved dad for their entire lives...even worked from home the last 7 years before divorce just so I could take them to/from school. My only disadvantage was that I had a penis.

To add salt to the wounds, the judge justified the time allocation by saying that after CS and alimony I could not afford a home appropriate for my children (which was probably true, since he awarded her ~2/3 of my gross income, and did not allow even an imputed minimum wage on her behalf...years later, she still does not work, but lives off my income alone). Once my kids were 18, the C/S portion of my monthly payment to the ex was converted to alimony...in other words, it did not reduce one penny

2014-07-13T21:36:36+00:00

And let me guess, feminists are in full opposition, probably funding the next study to show how children are damaged by seeing their fathers more than 3.51946 hours per week.

skord · 2014-07-13T23:14:58+00:00

So what. Custody has no bearing on the time with your children. You can have shared custody and have rights to see your kids three times a month.

Is it a good thing? I guess. Shared custody means input on medical decisions and other important things. It's better than not having those rights, but it's far from equality.

2014-07-13T23:58:21+00:00

To extend this study further, Cancian and colleagues have now included relevant Wisconsin Court Records until 2008, comprising 9,873 divorce cases in total.

Sounds like it only takes legal cases into account. What families go to court isn't a random sample.

Title	Shared custody becoming the norm: Study finds dramatic decline in mother-sole custody cases
Author	JessicaBurde
Upvotes	171
Comments	18
Date	July 13, 2014 8:00 PM UTC (12 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/mensrights/comments/2alu8d/shared-custody-becoming-the-norm-study-finds-/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/shared-custody-becoming-the-norm-study-finds.1619233 https://theredarchive.com/post/1619233

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