According to a 2002 study conducted by BYU Professor Sven Wilson, male combat veterans who were in their first marriage were 62% more likely to experience an end to their marriage than were other men. The study cites specific reasoning, "Traumatic experiences like combat seem to have a persistent impact on the ability of people to form and maintain successful relationships." The sad truth is that being gone from a relationship for any significant length of time changes people. Absence, in fact, does not make the heart grow fonder.
As a result of this statistic, many veterans who are also fathers are finding themselves at the mercy of the courts when it comes to deciding parenting time. Our society has long been concerned about reversing prevalent stereotypical paradigms about gender roles. Mostly, this focus has been on women in the workplace. Unfortunately for veterans who are fathers, their plight has been ignored in favor of perpetuating the misconception that women are better caretakers of children.
In 1989, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court conducted a study about Gender Bias in the court system. The study, which has been much debated, claimed that when fathers actively seek either primary or joint physical custody of their children, they are successful about 70% of the time. However, as independent researchers began to analyze the data that this conclusion was based on, they began to find startlingly different information.
The truth is, when mothers request sole custody of the children, their request is granted 65% more often than the same request tendered by fathers. Add to this the compounding effect of being away from the home for large periods of time due to wartime deployments, and veterans are typically seen by the court as "absentee fathers". As a result, their rights as parents are often unfairly abridged.
Of course, the Catch 22 of this situation is that the less they are allowed to see the children, the more they are required to pay in child support. Add this to the grim prospects of finding a civilian job after returning home from war due to a veteran unemployment rate which is sometimes double or triple the rate for everyone else, and it makes for a very difficult financial and emotional experience for our returning soldiers.
In the Minnesota State Legislature, there is a proposed bill (H.F. No. 322) which would require the courts to presume that a 50/50 joint physical custody arrangement is in the best interests of the children unless specific evidence can be shown that one parent is unworthy of it. Hopefully, this bill will receive bipartisan support and become law. Until then, at least in Minnesota, many military fathers will continue to be unfairly discriminated against in child custody cases.
As a result of this statistic, many veterans who are also fathers are finding themselves at the mercy of the courts when it comes to deciding parenting time. Our society has long been concerned about reversing prevalent stereotypical paradigms about gender roles. Mostly, this focus has been on women in the workplace. Unfortunately for veterans who are fathers, their plight has been ignored in favor of perpetuating the misconception that women are better caretakers of children.
In 1989, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court conducted a study about Gender Bias in the court system. The study, which has been much debated, claimed that when fathers actively seek either primary or joint physical custody of their children, they are successful about 70% of the time. However, as independent researchers began to analyze the data that this conclusion was based on, they began to find startlingly different information.
The truth is, when mothers request sole custody of the children, their request is granted 65% more often than the same request tendered by fathers. Add to this the compounding effect of being away from the home for large periods of time due to wartime deployments, and veterans are typically seen by the court as "absentee fathers". As a result, their rights as parents are often unfairly abridged.
Of course, the Catch 22 of this situation is that the less they are allowed to see the children, the more they are required to pay in child support. Add this to the grim prospects of finding a civilian job after returning home from war due to a veteran unemployment rate which is sometimes double or triple the rate for everyone else, and it makes for a very difficult financial and emotional experience for our returning soldiers.
In the Minnesota State Legislature, there is a proposed bill (H.F. No. 322) which would require the courts to presume that a 50/50 joint physical custody arrangement is in the best interests of the children unless specific evidence can be shown that one parent is unworthy of it. Hopefully, this bill will receive bipartisan support and become law. Until then, at least in Minnesota, many military fathers will continue to be unfairly discriminated against in child custody cases.
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