Quote: The most recent research strongly supports a shift away from the
"one size its all," "winner take all" sole custody framework toward the
notion of shared parental responsibility.

A definitive paper on the merits and policy for shared parenting has been
published by Prof. Edward Kruk (Canada).

"CHILD CUSTODY, ACCESS AND PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY: THE SEARCH FOR A JUST
AND EQUITABLE STANDARD"

Edward Kruk, M.S.W., Ph.D. The University of British Columbia December,
2008 <kruk@interchange.ubc.ca>

This paper was commissioned by the Father Involvement Research Alliance
(FIRA) based at the University of Guelph. Funding support for FIRA and this
paper was provided through a Community University Research Alliance grant
from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The
intent of this paper is to promote informed dialogue and debate. The views
expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views
of FIRA or of other researchers/

collaborators associated with FIRA.
Communications can be addressed to the author.

Entitled "Child Custody, Access, and Parental Responsibility: The Search
for a Just and Equitable Standard", it has been published December, 2008 by
Fatherhood Involvement Research Alliance (FIRA ).

Edward Kruk, professor of social work at the University of British
Columbia, proposes a four-pillar approach to child custody determination in
Canada (or elsewhere for that matter):

- a rebuttable legal presumption of joint physical custody after divorce

- parenting plans, mediation and intervention / support in high conflict cases

- shared parenting education and judicial determination in cases of
established abuse, along with enforcement of shared parental responsibility
orders

The paper provides an empirical foundation for, and a step-by-step process,
for implementation of an equal parenting bill.

The paper examines the issues, surveys approaches in UK, USA, Sweden and
Australia, examines Canadian Child custody legislation at a provincial
level, reviews Canadian efforts to make changes, and critiques the
traditional sole custody approach as a basis leading up to the universal
four-pillar approach for Equal Parenting.

The full paper, and a summary, can be download from the following URLs.

Both are attached to this email as PDFs.

The link to the full paper (101 pages with over a 100 references) is:

http://www.fira.ca/cms/documents/181/
http://www.fira.ca/cms/documents/181/ChildCustody.Kruk.Fullpdf.pdf

The link to the executive summary (9 pages, text appended below) is:

http://www.fira.ca/cms/documents/179/
http://www.fira.ca/cms/documents/179/ChildCustody-ExecSummary.pdf

http://www.fira.ca/
Father Involvement Research Alliance

All downloadable resources:
http://fira.ca/resources.php