Precipitating Legal Change: Children's Rights, Family Definitions, and Judicial Decision-Making

加速法律变革：儿童权利、家庭定义和司法决策

• 批准号: 0849681
• 负责人: Mellisa Holtzman
• 金额: $ 8.17万
• 依托单位: Ball State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-06-01 至 2011-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0849681&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Precipitating; Legal; Change; Children; Rights

This research focuses on custody disputes between biological and nonbiological parents in order to explore how changing conceptions of the family and shifting ideas about parents' and children's rights influence judicial decisions over time. Although the project will enable researchers to explore a number of questions germane to issues of family, children's and parents' rights, and legal decision-making, one primary aim of this research is to empirically examine the efficacy of two arguments that are often suggested as potential avenues for legal change in custody disputes between biological and nonbiological parents. In court, biological parents are often favored in these disputes, but many scholars argue that such a preference ignores the psychological attachments that exist between children and their nonbiological parents. Recent work has, therefore, advocated two distinct approaches for promoting legal changes aimed at protecting children's attachment relationships: some scholars argue that legal recognition of expanding definitions of the family is the key to protecting children's attachments, while others argue that such protection is contingent upon legal recognition of children's rights. This research examines the efficacy of these competing sources of legal change through an in-depth, longitudinal, mixed methods study of judicial decision-making in eight states over a nearly 40 year period. In so doing, this research contributes to scholarly understandings of 1) the legal and social factors that precipitate legal change, 2) the process of judicial decision-making, 3) the implications of changing social and legal definitions of the family for various litigants in custody disputes, and 4) the efficacy of children's rights arguments in custody decision-making. By disseminating these results to legislators, lawyers, judges, and other policymakers, this study also has the potential to influence the lives of children and their parents (both biological and nonbiological) by informing judicial decisions and influencing policy recommendations.

本研究的重点是亲生父母和非亲生父母之间的监护权纠纷，以探讨随着时间的推移，家庭观念的变化和父母和子女权利观念的转变如何影响司法裁决。 虽然该项目将使研究人员探索一些问题密切相关的家庭，儿童和父母的权利，和法律的决策问题，本研究的一个主要目的是实证研究的有效性，两个参数，经常建议作为潜在的途径法律的变化之间的监护权亲生父母和非亲生父母。 在法庭上，亲生父母在这些纠纷中往往受到青睐，但许多学者认为，这种偏好忽视了儿童与非亲生父母之间存在的心理依恋。 因此，最近的工作提倡采取两种不同的办法来促进旨在保护儿童依恋关系的法律的变革：一些学者认为，法律的承认家庭的扩大定义是保护儿童依恋关系的关键，而另一些学者则认为，这种保护取决于法律的承认儿童权利。 本研究通过对八个州近40年的司法决策进行深入、纵向、混合方法的研究，探讨了这些竞争性法律的变革来源的效力。 在这样做，本研究有助于学术理解1）沉淀法律的变化的法律的和社会因素，2）司法决策的过程中，3）不断变化的社会和法律的定义的家庭的各种诉讼当事人在监护权纠纷的影响，和4）在监护权决策的儿童权利的论点的效力。 通过向立法者，律师，法官和其他决策者传播这些结果，这项研究也有可能通过告知司法决定和影响政策建议来影响儿童及其父母（生物和非生物）的生活。