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- Title
A Reconsideration of the Effect of No-Fault Divorce on Divorce Rates.
- Authors
Glenn, Norval D.
- Abstract
The article comments on the effect of no-fault divorce on divorce rates in the United States. Forty-one states adopted no-fault divorce during the "divorce boom" of the 1960s and 1970s, when the crude divorce rate more than doubled, and two others adopted no-fault divorce in 1979, the year the divorce rate peaked. In the states that adopted no-fault provisions at times other than during the divorce boom, the mean divorce rate was no higher in the 3 years after adoption than in the 3 years before adoption. The greatest absolute increase in the divorce rate during the divorce boom was in the three states that adopted no-fault divorce prior to 1965. Whereas, the states that had not yet adopted no- fault divorce and that did not do so during the subsequent 3 years can be used as a control group for each state that adopted no-fault divorce during the divorce boom. If, as these findings indicate, the adoption of no-fault divorce had little direct, immediate effect on divorce rates, the reason is probably that the adoption of no-fault divorce was a late and largely redundant, step in the lowering of moral, social, and legal barriers to divorce.
- Subjects
UNITED States; NO-fault divorce; DIVORCE records; INTERPERSONAL relations; FAMILIES; SOCIAL sciences
- Publication
Journal of Marriage & Family, 1997, Vol 59, Issue 4, p1023
- ISSN
0022-2445
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/353800