ABSTRACT

The divorce rate has been rising significantly throughout the twentieth century. By interweaving the historical, demographic, sociological, legal, political and policy aspects of this increase, Colin Gibson explores the effects it has had on family patterns and habits. Dissolving Wedlock presents a multi-disciplinary examination of all the socio-legal consequences of family breakdown.
Dissolving Wedlock will be invaluable reading to all lecturers and students of social policy, sociology and social work as well as to professionals and lawyers working in the field of divorce.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

part |2 pages

Part I Before civil divorce

chapter 2|7 pages

Decline of the ecclesiastical courts

chapter 3|18 pages

Parliamentary divorce

chapter 4|20 pages

The coming of judicial divorce

part |2 pages

Part II Divorce or separation

chapter 5|18 pages

Constraints of poverty and gender

chapter 6|14 pages

Between the wars

part |2 pages

Part III Marriage patterns in the twentieth century

chapter 8|18 pages

Changing family patterns

chapter 9|19 pages

The resort to divorce: the social evidence

chapter 10|17 pages

The reconstituted family

part |2 pages

Part IV Marriage breakdown today

chapter 11|14 pages

Divorce: the legal evidence

chapter 12|15 pages

Family breakdown, protection and the law

chapter 13|14 pages

Accounting for family support

chapter 14|16 pages

Marriage breakdown in the 1990s