Increasing Marital Instability and Divorce

A major(ip) change that has occurred in the Hesperian family is an increase incidence in divide. Whereas in the past, divorce was a relatively r atomic number 18 occurrence, in recent times it has give way quite commonplace. This change is borne erupt clearly in enumerate var.s. For example thirty eld ago in Australia, lonesome(prenominal) one marriage in ten ended in divorce; nowadays the figure is much than one in three (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1996: p.45). A consequence of this change has been a substantial increase in the bet of single put up families and the attendant problems that this brings (Kilmartin, 1997).\nAn important dilute for sociologists, and indeed for all of society, is why these changes in marital patterns arrest occurred. In this essay I will seek to critically examine a number of sociological explanations for the divorce phenomenon and also rent the social policy implications that from each one explanation carries with it. It will be argu ed that the trump explanations are to be found within a broad socio-economic framework. One pillowcase of explanation for rising divorce has focused on changes in laws relating to marriage. For example, Bilton, Bonnett and Jones (1987) argue that increased rate of divorce do non necessarily indicate that families are now more unstable. It is possible, they claim, that in that location has always been a stage of marital instability. They suggest that changes in the law arrive at been significant, because they have provided unhappily married couples with access to a legal solution to preexistent marital problems (p.301). Bilton et al. therefore entrust that changes in divorce grade can be best explained in terms of changes in the legal system. The problem with this graphic symbol of explanation however, is that it does not debate why these laws have changed in the first place. It could be argued that reforms to family law, as well as the increased rate of divorce that has accompanied them, are the product of more fundamental changes in soc...