This article reviews briefly the history of child custody decision making and describes current custodial arrangements in the United States. It examines both the manner in which parents and courts make decisions regarding custody and access, and the changes in visiting patterns in recent decades. The author discusses the impact of reforms in the law and the implementation of newer dispute resol...

Parents of morbidly obese children face a Hobson’s choice between losing custody of their child for medical neglect and subjecting their child to a regimen of increasingly dangerous interventions to control the child’s weight. The incidence of pediatric obesity has risen in recent years and presents serious lifelong risks to the child if left untreated. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is the only medi...

Mothers and domestic violence advocates have been complaining for many years about problems in the custody court system that have resulted in large numbers of children being sent to live with abusive fathers while safe, protective mothers are denied any meaningful relationship with their children. Courts have tended to dismiss the complaints by referring to the mothers as “disgruntled litigants...

Each year approximately 2.5 million people divorce, subjecting more than 1 million children to the losses of familial breakup. Hostility in families can be greatly exacerbated by parents' repeated failures to negotiate an altered lifestyle for the family which provides for the children's best interests. Interventions with highly conflictual parents and their children must necessarily address th...

This Article considers the notable developments in Indiana family law during survey period of October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018. The published appellate cases surveyed this concern property division upon divorce, parenting time and visitation, child custody, support, adoption paternity, CHINS termination parental rights, jurisdiction procedure.

This paper shows how parental preferences for sons versus daughters affect divorce, child custody, marriage, shotgun marriage when the sex of the child is known before birth, and fertility stopping rules. We document that parents with girls are significantly more likely to be divorced, that divorced fathers are more likely to have custody of their sons, and that women with only girls are substa...