Facts & Misconceptions (US)

Divorce Rates

There is a common misconception that this divorce rate means that 50% of the people who get married will get divorced. Actually, the rate is so high because a smaller number of men and women marry multiple times and feel such a low sense of responsibility toward the institute of marriage, that they easily get divorced and then re-marry someone else.

80% of all divorces are filed by women.

Women receive primary custody of the children in 93% of the divorce cases. 

Father Deprivation

77% of non-custodial fathers are NOT able to "visit" their children, as ordered by the court, as a result of "visitation interference".

40% of mothers reported that they had interfered with the non-custodial father's visitation on at least one occasion, to punish the ex-spouse.

Illegitimacy

In 1998 there were 1,293,357 births to unwed mothers in the U.S.

The birthrate to unwed mothers is approximately 30% of all births. 

In 1999, according to the American Assn. of Blood banks, 280,000 paternity tests were conducted, and in nearly one third of cases, the man was found not to be the father.

Fatherless Children

Children from fatherless homes are:

Children who are in the care of single mothers are:

33 times more likely to be seriously abused (so that they will require medical attention), and 73 times more likely to be killed.
 

71% of teenage pregnancies are to children of single parents. 
 

Daughters of single parents are 2.1 times more likely to have children during there teenage years than are children from intact families.
 

Some other widely recognized statistics of the ills, and cost to society of father-absence include:

There is also a threefold increase in the likelihood that a child will be involved in gang activity

Child Support

Child support has no basis in the actual costs of raising a child. There are no connections to the payment of Child Support and access to the child. Nor are there any required accounting practices for how child support is spent. Child Support is actually Mommy support. It has been considered by some as a scheme to redistribute wealth.

Child Support Collections

Only 10% of all non-custodial fathers fit the "deadbeat dad" category: 

90% of the fathers with joint custody paid the support due. 

Fathers with visitation rights pay 79.1%; 

44.5% of those with NO visitation rights still financially support their children.

66% of all support not paid by non-custodial fathers is due to inability to pay.

Deadbeat Moms?

Females not paying Child Support 

Corrupt Family Courts 

"There is no system ever devised by mankind that is guaranteed to rip husband and wife or father, mother and child apart so bitterly than our present Family Court System." Judge Brian Lindsay Retired Supreme Court Judge, New York.

“There is something bad happening to our children in family courts today that is causing them more harm than drugs, more harm than crime and even more harm than child molestation.” Judge Watson L. White Superior Court Judge, Cobb County, Georgia

Welfare Benefits 

In New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Alaska and Rhode Island, welfare pays more than a $12.00 an hour job--or more than two-and-a-half times the minimum wage. In 40 states, welfare pays more than $8.00 an hour job. In 17 states the welfare package is more generous than a $10.00 an hour job.

Childhood Kidnapping

In 1990 family abductions were 163,200 compared to non-family abductions of 200-300. The parental abductions were attributed to parents’ disenchantment with the legal system. 

False Abuse

Accusations of child abuse are skyrocketing yet, as a 1998 study established, 71% were unfounded and false, created only for leverage in protracted divorce cases, custody battles, and money disputes. The consequences are drastic; severe prison sentences, destroyed reputations, lost jobs and worse - lost children. 

Male Suicide

Per the 2000 World Almanac and Book of Facts, page 892, annual suicide rates for all ages and sexes were 30,525 in 1997. Male suicides were 24,492 versus female 6,043, a 4-1 ratio. Furthermore, by far the biggest bulge in suicide rates is men in the prime divorce years of 25-64, with a total of 15,905 male suicides in these years. The significance of this is perhaps more dramatically stated as an average of about 300 adult men a week killing themselves in America.

The causal link between suicide and relationship breakdown has been demonstrated in studies which have shown that the ratio of suicide deaths by divorced and separated white men in comparison to their married counterparts vary from a ration of 7:1 to 3:1 

Mothers -- Child Abuse

[Return to Top]