Abstract
The article “Divorce Trends and Patterns in the Western World: A socio-legal overview”, written by Tony Fahey, contains a profound overview of all the patterns and trends in divorce in the modern world in developed countries of the Western World. It regards the definition of the world “divorce” and its meaning, the causes and reasons of divorce, the legal process, and usual consequences thereof. Tony Fahey has made a deep investigation of marital breakdown in the modern society over half of a century. The author indicates that though the number of divorces has radically increased recently, the reasons of divorces have remained the same as they were in the past. These are alcoholism, fictitious marriage, diversity of characters, lack of understanding, jealousy, infidelity, frequent quarrels, the irresponsible attitude of the spouses to the family and family duties. In addition, other causes of divorce include the appearance of another family, the loss of the feeling of love, physical incompatibility, interference in family relations of parents or other relatives, the illness of one of the spouses, and the absence of children.
Key words: divorce, breakup, legal order, complexity, transition, consequences, problem.
The article “Divorce Trends and Patterns in the Western World: A socio-legal overview” by Tony Fahey contains a general overview of all the patterns and trends in divorce in the modern world in developed countries. It is written from a sociological perspective, thus, contains reasons and tendencies related to divorce. The article provides readers with the latest trends in marital breakdown that have taken place over the last 50 years in developed countries (Fahey, 2013). It also considers the legal regulation of couple breakups, however, the attention is put on the social issues related to divorce. The article explains the necessity of social policy in order to change the current divorce situations.
When divorce happens, not all families are able to withstand its test of strength. Many families are broken over time; this is because significant changes occur in the attitudes of spouses to preserve marriage and life plans can be broken. Therefore, in some cases, it is not only impossible, but also impractical to preserve marriage as a union because it does not bring satisfaction to partners. In such situations, there is a single solution; divorce. A happy marriage is based on love and understanding. For some, divorce is the only way out of a conflict in a family. The article by Fahey considers a wide of human relationships and their complexity, where the objective state is closely intertwined with the subjective, the biological with the social, psychological, moral, and ethical (Fahey, 2013). Hence, there is a reason to believe that not all divorced people understand why their happy family life did not work out and whether a divorce was really necessary or what is waiting for them and their children after the divorce. No wonder divorce is often compared to an iceberg in the sea; on the surface, it is visible only a small part of a complex dramatic experiences, while most of the iceberg that is in the water represents the depths of hearts and souls of divorced people (Fahey, 2013).
For a long time, the right to divorce has been the subject of discussion in many societies. Recognition of the right to divorce, that is, the freedom of people not only to marry, but also to terminate the marriage, is a proof of the democratization of society. For example, in countries where there is a strong influence of the Catholic Church, which prohibits divorce, these figures are much lower than in countries in which there are less barriers to divorce (Fahey, 2013). The same applies to statistics on the most common causes of divorce. In one country, divorce is based on the "principle of guilt", that is, the court must prove the guilt of one of the spouses on the following grounds: adultery, deliberate care of a spouse to perform marital duties, and others. In some Muslim countries, it is enough for a man to say publicly that the current wife is not his wife for three times, and the marriage is terminated.
Furthermore, the article contains the definition of a divorce, which is the legal termination of a marriage. Divorce is a non-normative crisis of the family, the main content of which is the state of disharmony caused by a violation of homeostasis of the family system, requires the reorganization of the family as a system. Divorce is a result of the crisis in the couple relationship (Fahey, 2013). Implementation of a divorce, as a rule, is preceded by repeated attempts to break up the couple. Divorce and its psychological consequences are actual problems of modern society. According to statistics, today one in four married is divided in the world, and, according to studies, 67% of men and 32% of women think that a divorce could have been prevented (Fahey, 2013). The author says that in modern society, the phenomenon of divorce is a controversial issue. Previously it was interpreted unequivocally negative, as a threat to the family, but now the possibility of dissolution of a marriage is considered as an integral part of the family system, necessary for its restructuring in cases where it is impossible to keep the family together in the same composition and structure. The growing number of divorces, according to the researchers given in the article, in a sense predetermined by the transition to a new way of marriage, when the main importance is the free choice of a spouse on the basis of feelings of love and personal selectivity. The freedom to choose a partner necessarily presupposes the free divorce in circumstances where marital relations are developing poorly. Many young people divorce is no longer perceived as a tragedy but as a good opportunity to get rid of intolerably dull and false relations in love.
On the other hand, Fahey argues that divorces, unfortunately, represent a serious social problem which covers the whole world. It is not surprising that public opinion today will differently regard the trend of increasing number of divorces. On the one hand, it protects the individual's right to personal liberty, unanimously recognizing the right to be released from a failed or intolerable marriage. On the other hand the society condemns it as causing irreparable harm to the children. This ambivalent attitude towards divorce in the society in a certain way is affected by the nature of scientific research on the subject. Some researchers consider divorce as a negative, harmful phenomenon, a form of manifestation of family destruction, pointing out that in the mass consciousness divorce is often associated with shame, a symptom of a personal fall, with the manifestation of person’s own weakness, the inevitable rupture of normal relations with their children.
Some researchers believe that divorce can play a positive role if it leads to a real solution of family problems, promotes emotional balance and moral revival of the spouses. Such a point of view on the divorce is based on the fact that in some cases it is not only impossible, but also impractical to maintain the marriage, because the destructive relationship between parents can have a traumatic effect on the psyche of children and harmful influence on the formation of their personality (Fisanick, 2007). The development of economic independence and social equality of women creates the conditions for divorce in cases when the family becomes a hindrance to the free self-development and self-realization of women. The family retains at least one, but the most important function - to raise children (Pitcher, 2011). Divorced spouses cease to be husband and wife, but always remain the parents of their children.
In general, divorce is a very controversial social and moral phenomenon, which is defined in the dictionary on the family education as a "method of termination of marriage during the life of the spouses" (New Historical and Socio-Legal Perspectives on Jewish Divorce, 2015). Divorce is the end of the drama of family and a legal registration of a broken marriage. In the process, preceding the final dissolution of marriage, the author of the article highlights several stages (New Historical and Socio-Legal Perspectives on Jewish Divorce, 2015). It begins with an emotional divorce, which is expressed in the emergence of feelings of alienation, indifference spouses to each other, the loss of trust and love. Then the physical separation comes: the spouses are already thinking about the possibility of a legal divorce, but do not consider it the only and the best way out of this situation. Conjugal relations are limited at this time, partners are beginning to live separately. The legal divorce is the end of a long process.
Like any other social-psychological phenomenon, divorces are usually associated with objective and subjective reasons. The motive of a divorce is the reasons for the decision that the marriage needs cannot be met in the conjugal union (Fahey, 2013). Psychological studies of divorce motives give grounds to speak about their rather stable hierarchy. According to research data that the article provides in large cities the divorce motives can be arranged in the following order: alcoholism of one of the spouses, diversity of characters and lack of understanding, infidelity or suspicion of infidelity, frequent quarrels, the appearance of another family, the loss of the feeling of love, physical incompatibility, jealousy, interference in family relations of parents or other relatives, the illness of one of the spouses, fictitious marriage, the irresponsible attitude of the spouses to the family and family duties, the forced separation of spouses, the absence of children or unwillingness of one of the spouses to have children.
Former spouses differently justify the decision to dissolve the marriage. Due to the divorce statistics, the reason of infidelity is put forward by 51% of men and only 28% of women (Fahey, 2013). This confirms the observation that men are much more categorical in refer to the fact of female infidelity, the drunkenness of the spouse if put forward by the 44.6% of women and only 10.6% of men (Fahey, 2013). Despite the significant socio-economic changes in the world in recent years, the reasons and motives for divorce almost have not changed a lot.
References
Fahey, T. (2013). 2 Divorce Trends and Patterns in the Western World : A socio - legal overview. UCD Geary Institute Discussion Paper Series, Geary WP2013/20, 1-16.
Fisanick, C. (2007). Divorce. Detroit, Mich: Greenhaven Press.
New Historical and Socio-Legal Perspectives on Jewish Divorce. (2015). Nashim: A Journal Of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues, (28), 170. Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.2979/nashim.28.170
Pitcher, D. (2011). What Maisie Knew: A Child's Experience of Divorce. Journal Of Divorce & Remarriage, 52(7), 519-528. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10502556.2011.614539
