The Effect of Unilateral Divorce on Family and Divorce Rate - Research Paper Example

 The Effect of Unilateral Divorce on Family and Divorce Rate Abstract Since the divorce reform bill was adopted in United States, the argument for its impact on national divorce rates and divorced families has lasted for decades. There is need to care about both the complications and benefits that was caused by unilateral divorce because family is a priority for people. From the analysis national divorce report, the unilateral divorce law increases the national divorce rate in short-term. Also, by comparing the harm and benefit of this law on divorced families, women are generally profited but children of divorced couples are adversely affected by divorce reform. Introduction The proposal for divorce becomes essential when a married couple consider that their togetherness is beyond the limits of compromise. The process of legal separation is bound to the state laws of the concerned parties and it normally takes a long time to close a case. In order to reduce the legal complications and time lapses during the judicial process, the United States has introduced a unilateral divorce law by which either party is able to get freedom from the troubled marriage without the consent of the other. Even as the new law encourages individual freedom, there are assumptions that it has some adverse impacts on the society such as declining values of marriage and increasing crime rates etc. This research paper will examine the changes and complications of social environment associated with the national divorce rate and divorced families after the implementation of the unilateral divorce law in the United States. The Unilateral Divorce Law and its Development Since marriage is considered as the strongest bond between two individuals, the expectations about a nuptial relationship is that it lasts long without problems that may arise the need for a separation. However, the conflicts of personal opinions and the influence of several aspects related to the individual choices can cause problems in marriages. In order to solve the issues of citizens’ marriage life, the Unites States has constituted the Unilateral Divorce Law. The new provisions of the legislation meant that the individuals can choose divorce without mutual consent; that is, unilateral separation can become mutual separation, and thus qualify as voluntary separation, where the party who initially opposed the separation no longer wants to reconcile (Aspen Publishers, 2010, p.50). In other way, the easy way to define unilateral divorce is that is an option for either spouse to end the entity of marriage without the permission of the other. The unilateral divorce law emphasizes on the settlement of financial claims along with the breaking up of marriages in disputed cases. Divorces are always exposed to a number of legal complications, such as financial claims and the decisions to reunite after the divorce. In such cases, the law advocates that the couple can stay together by mutually settling the issues through out-of-the-court settlements, which shows that the versatility is an important element of unilateral divorce law. Unilateral divorce also clears the cases without complications and by reducing the time for elaborated proceedings and the cost involved in repeated hearing till the verdict. Another important fact is the economic benefit of the spouses and their early obtainment from the divorce from the unilateral separation. The unilateral divorce law is favorable for the spouse who opts to stay in the marriage due to the request of the other. As such, when divorce becomes the choice of one spouse, the other has the claim for compensation to stay in the marriage. The law suggests that the balanced choice after the unilateral separation is based on the magnitude of the gains and losses occurred to the spouses. The economic prospective of the psychology of the unilateral separation is evident from the immediate behavior of separated couples. According to Kemp and Wall (2013), most of the spouses after the separation under the unilateral law enjoy the benefit of punishing their partners by dissolving economic conflicts without mutual consent, which means it’s as easy to deal with the economic issues of divorce as to get divorce with unilateral divorce law (Kemp.S, Wall.G, 2013, p.100). Special Case Unilateral divorce law was not taken to practice by New York makes for the settlement of divorce cases. The law does not mandate a spouse to engage a lawyer to facilitate the legal formalities of divorce under the unilateral divorce law. The though the process is not difficult for childless couples, the matter of divorce becomes complicated if it involves the issues related to raising children, financial relationships with others outside the marriage and the sorts of responsibilities related to one’s daily life. However, a suggestion from Stutman (2013) that “in case of the presence of competency of the spouses to enter in to divorce without the active participation of court proceedings in New York, they can seek the guidance of an attorney capable of negotiating the settlement under the provisions of the local divorce law with complete knowledge of relevant tax laws to frame a technically perfect agreement of mutual consent of separation” (Stutman, 2013, p.2). The New York unilateral divorce law is different from the laws of other states since it is the only one provides the approval of divorce decree by a foreign jurisdiction. Under the laws of other states, the rule is that both participants of the divorce case must possess the permanent residency in the United States to claim unilateral divorce. In New York State law, divorce can be obtained simply by initiating a separation between the partners without stating considerable reasons for divorce like adultery, drug addiction or alcoholism. The state’s divorce law suggests that the term of spouses’ separation in excess of one year is legitimate and competent enough to be termed as unilateral divorce. One New York Times report by Pappas (February 19, 2006) about the recent development in the divorce cases indicate that the law has become feasible for spouses to adopt the separation without the consultation with courts which requires a long term legal proceedings. A criticism of this law claims that most husbands are able to obtain divorce without mutual consultation about the issues like the custody of children and the future life of the divorced wives. It may also be seen that the state divorce law has been discouraging the women participants because more economic freedom is given to males under the unilateral divorce law. The detachment of New York from the unilateral no-fault divorce law also makes the divorced women fear the struggles of raising a child because the law is not effective to rule the wealth distribution immediately after the divorce. Fault Divorces versus Unilateral Divorces A fair stand on the matter of divorce is possible only on the analysis of the fault elements in it. Thus it is important to see that unilateral divorces focus on the validity of the fault and no-fault cases involving in a dispute. All the unilateral divorces are not fault based, and unilateral separation is allowed in some states only if the couples have lived separately for a long time. During the separation, legal proceedings can start without stating reasons of faults. But during the process of unilateral divorce, more concerns of economical problems involve. Ca´ceres-Delpiano and Giolito (2012) clearly state that, the unilateral divorces require a large cost involvement because this model of divorce will force the spouse who wants to end the marriage to pay the other one who wishes to continue for compensating the losses occurring from the divorce (Ca´ceres-Delpiano, Giolito,2012,p.168). On the other hand, fault divorce clearly requires reason for separation as proof by one of the spouses on the other. The procedure of the fault divorce can start as soon as one spouse legally reports the faults such as wrongdoings in any form. According to the provisions described by Distenfield and Distenfield (2005), if the fault is proven with a spouse, the court will initiate proceedings to divide the assets of the couple and workout the settlement of divorce on the basis of the fault after paying off debts (Distendfield, Distendfield, 2005, p.30). Even though the reasons are fault or no-fault, the influential distinction between the two types of divorce is the way they deal with the settlement of economic factors such as finance and property etc related to the divorce. Unilateral Divorce Laws and Divorce Rates Divorce has been a social phenomenon as the institution of marriage. The reforms of the laws with the settlement of divorces have changed the social opinions about marriages existing in the United States. There can be an approximation that, since the introduction of the unilateral divorce law, there has been a rapid rise in the number of matrimonial issues in the United States. Studies on the legitimacy of marriages highlight the importance of the law affecting public’s decisions of divorce in the old days. Before the introduction of the unilateral divorce laws, divorces were only allowed with the mutual consent of the spouses, and at least one of them was charged with serious faults in the relationship in the United States. The convenience of unilateral divorce law had significantly affected the quality of family bonds and the expectations of marriage across the American societies for the two decades since it was adopted (the chart below illustrates the data). Even though the two recent decades shows a decline in the divorces, the fact is, taking divorce from the spouse does not require married people to even wait for the decree of separation by the court of law. All Americans seem to embrace their freedom to alter the choices; therefore, it is not surprising to see that all states in America now have adopted the unilateral divorce law. Average divorce rate: Divorces per 1,000 people State 1968-72 1983-88 2011 Alabama 4.4 6.2 4.3 Alaska 5.6 7.2 4.8 Arizona 7 6.8 3.9 Arkansas 5.5 6.8 5.3 California 4.9 5.1 / Colorado 4.7 5.8 4.4 Connecticut 2.1 3.7 3.1 Delaware 2.9 4.8 3.6 District of Colunmbia 3.3 4.2 2.9 Florida 5.8 6.7 4.5 Georgia 4 5.5 / Hawaii 3.6 4.5 / Idaho 4.9 6.1 4.9 Illinois 3.4 4.2 2.6 Indiana 4.6 6.3 / Iowa 2.6 3.7 2.4 Kansas 3.8 5.1 3.9 Kentucky 3.3 5 4.4 Louisiana 2.7 3.6 / Maine 3.7 5 4.2 Maryland 2.4 3.6 2.9 Massachusetts 2.1 3.2 2.7 Michigan 3.4 4.3 3.4 Minnesota 2.2 3.6 / Mississippi 3.6 4.9 4 Missouri 3.9 5 3.9 Montana 4.4 5.3 4 Nebraska 2.5 3.9 3.5 Nevada 20.9 14.2 5.6 New Hampshire 3.5 4.8 3.8 Ner Jersey 1.7 3.6 2.9 New Mexico 4.3 7.8 3.3 New York 1.5 3.7 2.9 North Carolina 2.8 4.9 3.7 North dAKOTA 1.7 3.4 2.7 Ohio 3.6 4.8 3.4 Oklahoma 6.3 7.4 5.2 Oregon 4.7 5.8 3.8 Pennsylvania 2 3.3 2.8 Rhode Island 1.6 3.8 3.2 South Carolina 2.3 4.1 3.2 South Dakota 2.1 3.7 3.3 Tennessee 4.2 6.3 4.3 Texas 4.7 5.9 3.2 Utah 3.8 5.1 3.7 Vermont 2.2 4.5 3.6 Virginia 2.6 4.3 3.8 Washington 5.3 6 4.1 West Virginia 3 5 5.2 Wisconsin 2 3.5 2.9 Wyoming 5.6 7.2 4.8 (CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System) There is a wide-range assumption that the unilateral divorce law has significantly increased the annual rates of divorces across the United States. Friedberg (1998) show evidences of about one-sixth rise in average divorce rates during the two decades between 1968 and 1988 (Friedberg, 1998, p. 489). A more reliable estimation could be made on the basis of the statistics of permanent effect of divorce rates between the pre-reform period (1950-65) and post-reform period (1980-2002), in which the former period indicated 2.3 percent devorce, and the latter lifted the annual average to 4.6 percentages with an estimated sixty percentage of the marital disputes being covered by the unilateral divorce law. In a generalized perspective, the number of divorces has rapidly increased after the enforcement of unilateral divorce law. Friedberg highlights that the features such as lower cost, reduced delay and fewer legal barriers are the reasons for people to adopt the unilateral divorce laws for separation. However, there are reports to claim that the rise in the divorce rates is not long term effective on the basis of some recent studies. The statistical studies come out with mixed responses from different researchers at different times. Even though the records and statistics support that the unilateral divorce law raise the divorce rate, the inaccuracy concern may exist in a few of the studies due to the limitations of time and the estimation of the longevity of relevant assumptions. In some cases, like Friedberg points out, the divorce influenced by unilateral law has short effects that are less than four years (Friedberg, 1998, p.613). Based on data from Vital Statistics of the United States (National Center for Health Statistics), in general, the states’ divorce rates have declined to normal ranges in 2011. Negative Effect of Unilateral Divorce on Family The evaluation of divorce is done as a relationship with the statistics of the actual cases and estimates about the proportions of the divorce cases in different states. However, it is vital to examine the implications of unilateral divorces of families, particularly children, women, and men. One of the potential negative impacts of the unilateral divorce law is it generates a social awareness that divorce is a less serious issue. Also the easiness to handle divorce as a personal issue without legal complications can badly affect the accountability of spouses and quality of marriages. Another demerit of the unilateral divorce law is it primarily deals with the couples as individuals and therefore, the settlement of guardianship disputes can suffer legal delay. In reality, the challenge of unsettlement prevails with the children after the divorce as a problem with the increased the rates of separation of couples. Considering the fact that new divorce laws has increased cases of divorces of the parent couples, critics generally blame the unilateral divorce law is a direct harm to the children rather than a solution to settle their parents’ problems. Gordon (1998) shows that the element of ‘no-fault’ within the unilateral divorce law harms the children as their mothers being deprived of financial assistance to provide them essential care (Gordon, 1998, p.1439). Losses of most of the requirements of childhood make the children grow a permanent darkness about their life inside their mind. Like in any other case, unilateral divorces also cause immediate changes in the family circumstances which may causes deep injuries to their personalities, which can later develop into aggressiveness. They feel separated from their peers and choose to distort lifestyles in order to seal themselves from the social criticisms. When they grow up as adults, they are more likely to fail at normal social challenges and personal life demands, and the result will be the increasing suicidal tendency, mental disorders, and prolonged depression. Some may exhibit decreased levels of socializing enthusiasm as children, so when they grow up, they are more vulnerable to issues, such as drug addiction and adolescent pregnancy. Gruber (2004) states, “adults who were exposed to unilateral divorce regulations as children are less well educated, have low family incomes, marry earlier but separate more often, and have higher odds of adult suicide” (Gruber, 2004, p.799). The negative reflections of the impacts of parental divorce come out on their children in various ways. After the divorce of parents, the standard of life of the children degenerates, and they will be forced live substandard and bad modes of lifestyles. The situation becomes worse in the case of young girls as they grow up into a cruel society that makes them feel ashamed about their parent’s divorce. The most important impact of unilateral divorce on the life of women is the immediate escalation of financial burden and the lack of existing sources of income like in other divorces. The financial disadvantage is experienced because of the social structure that male dominates the source of finance and financial controls in families. The financial pressure on the divorced women increases since they are expected to immediately take over as the head of the family. It is observed that their responses to financial disadvantages are associated to their educational standards (Ca´ceres-Delpiano & Giolito, 2012, p.29). The problem persists with less educated women because their academic standards do not match their demanding levels of income to fulfill the needs. In such situations, sometimes, they will have no choice but to enter labor markets since survival becomes the biggest challenge for them. Therefore, the reform the divorce brings out the negative impact on women, especially on women with low educational level. The increase in divorce after the enforcement of the unilateral divorce law also forces the women in the black communities to engage in inferior employment to fulfill their daily needs. According to Ca´ceres-Delpiano and Giolito focus on the increasing concentration of young black women with low incomes cannot afford common housing after divorce so that they usually live in areas with high potential crimes rates and have neighbors with criminal records. (Ca´ceres-Delpiano & Giolito, 2012, p.5). In some cases, the new reform adds worry to the married life of men also. The reports of increasing spousal violence show that the misuse of law by women has badly affected the quality of men’s married life. Even though there are no fundamental facts to prove that unilateral divorces result in spousal killings, there are more chances that the insecurity concerns about the life after the divorce without consent can induce the women’s instinct of violence against their parting husbands. This assumption is tested by Engemann and Owyang (2008), who state that even though the new divorce law could not change the male instincts, there was about twenty six percent increase in the number of women who killed their husbands (Engemann, Owyang, 2008, p.15). Since the new divorce law leaves divorced women in a disadvantage situationwith financial burden, there is no doubt that male vulnerability increases among the married people. The psychological shadow of social insecurity has been shaded among divorced men in the country. Apart from the issues of spousal violence, the impact of the law is further experienced in the diminishing quality of family structure. The fact is that the acceptation of the unilateral divorce law by American society willmakes the meaning of family is fading away from the culture. According to Engemann and Owyang (2008), the new divorce reform stimulates women to work outside instead of being housewives and that will change men’s traditional preference for wives, as well. (Engemann, Owyang, 2008, p.13). The custody of children is also a legal battle among divorced parents under the unilateral divorce. According to the unilateral divorce law, the right of custody of the child normally goes to the guardian parent, who has contributed to the financial requirements of the family until the divorce. This provision of the law can affect women badly since they are generally housewives while their husbands have financial controls of the family. In most of the cases, the breakdown of the family takes place soon after the birth of one child and there can be a substantial reduction in the population at macro level. While increasing divorce rates can challenge the quality of sibling bonds and family values, it can also pave way for the degeneration of societies. Benefits of the Law to Families The unilateral divorce law is versatile in the social structure of the United States. There are many significance of this law which may prove beneficial for families. Like Stevenson and Wolfers (2006) report, during the post-reform periods, there was a large decline in the rates of domestic violence in condition of family samples between 1976 and 1985 (Stevenson, Wolfers, 2006, p.269). During this period, the violent crimes decreased over a third of the total proportion. The introduction of the new law has benefited women more obviously than men. There was a great decrease in the female homicides in the country. Suicide rates also decreased among women more rapidly than men after the reform in the divorce laws in the United States. In a generalized view, as illustrated by Cowen (2007), for home-keepers and people who enjoy marriages, the unilateral divorce law stimulates them to work harder in order to keep the relationship stable (Cowen, 2007). On the other hand, as the law gave more freedom, women are given more courage to cease the marriages that may make them suffer. At the same time, the new law has addressed women’s insecurity concern of spousal violence because it provides women have more bargaining powers during the process of divorce with the rules of property division (Engemann & Owyang, p.13). Conclusion Increasing rates of marital problems has forced the United States to implement the unilateral divorce law. Even though the law receives criticism for intensifying the divorce rates in recent decades, there are no reliable reports to prove that it has any long-term effect on the American matrimonial culture. The provision for easy resolution to the matrimonial issues and intra-household bargains makes this law a favorite choice of many married couples across the country. From the evaluation of this law, a number of benefits support women in general. However, the overall lives of the children of the divorced parents have experienced degeneration since the adoption unilateral divorce law. References Aspen Publishers. (2010). Family Law: Case notes legal briefs. US: Aspen Publishers. Cowen, T. (April 19, 2007). Matrimony Has Its Benefits, and Divorce Has a Lot to Do With That. The New York Times. Ca´ceres-Delpiano, J & Giolito, E. (2012). The Impact of Unilateral Divorce on Crime. Journal of Labor Economics, 30 (1): 215-248. Drewianka, S. (2008). Divorce law and family formation. Journal of Population Economics, 21 (2): 485-503. Distenfield, I & Distenfield, L. (2005). 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Stutman, M. (2013). Divorce in New York: The Legal Process, Your Rights, and What to Expect. NY: Addicus Books. CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System Read More