Statistical Analysis Of American Divorce (Paperback)

STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AJNIJ PUBLIC LAW Edited by the FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NUMBER 360 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN DIVORCE BY ALFRED CAHRX CONTENTS CHAPTER I, American Family Breakdown 15 CHAPTER II Probability of Divorce 21 CHAPTER III Grounds for Divorce . 32 CHAPTER IV Underlying Conditions . 45 CHAPTER V Migratory Divorce 63 CHAPTER VI Laws and the Home, 79 CHAPTER VII Remarriage 98 CHAPTER VIII Trends of the Vanishing Family . no CHAPTER IX Persistent Causes . CHAPTER X Dynamic Society and Divorce Velocity 138 BIBLIOGRAPHY 143 INDEX - I 47 LIST OF TABLES TABLE i. States with Decreasing Divorce Rates 25 TABLE 2. Decennial Estimates of Divorce Frequency 29 TABLE 3. Percentage Distribution of Grounds of Divorce, 1867 . 35 TABLE 4. Percentage Distribution of Grounds of Divorce for Husband and Wife, 1928 - ....... 37 TABLE 5. Refined Classification of Grounds of Divorce on Per centage Basis, 1928 . 41 TABLE 6. Average Percentages Divorced of the Urban and Rural Racial Populations of the Five Selected States, 1920. 58 TABLE 7. Percentage Distribution of Divorces According to SizeH3f Family, 1928 112 TABLE 8. Divorce and Homeless Children in Portland, Oregon, 1921 . 115 TABLE 9. Divorce in Relation to Duration of Marriage, 1928 . . 120 TABLE 10. Trends of Divorce and Four Related Economic and Social Factors ... 130 TABLE n. Years of Declining Divorce Rates - 135 II LIST OF CHARTS fAtiE CHART i. Divorce Rates by States, 1870 22 CHART 2. Divorce Rates by States, 1900 24 CHART 3. Divorce Rates by States, 1929 . . . ... 26 CHART 4, Map of States with Decreasing Divorce Rates Shown in White, 1929 28 CHART 5. Century Race Between Death and Divorce. . .. 31 CHART 6. Map Showing Prevalence of Divorce in Nine Geo graphical Sections of the Country, 1929 . - 33 CHART 7, Comparative Divorce Rates for the Nine Census Divisions of the Nation, 1929 .... 34 CHART 8, Distribution of Grounds for Divorce, 1867 36 CHART 9. Distribution of Grounds for Divorce, 1928 ...... 38, CHART 10. Standard Area Divorce Map of Thirty-nine States, 1929 52 CHART n. Per cent of Divorces Involving Children, 1928. . . . in CHART 12. Probabilities of Divorce According to Presence or Absence of Children, 1928 .... 114 CHART 13. Percentage Distribution of Divorces Granted in 1928 for First Thirty Years of Marriage. ........ 117 CHART 14, Relative Probabilities of Divorce and Death for First Thirty Years of Marriage, 1928 119 CHART 15. Corrected Distribution Showing Probabilities of Di vorce for First Thirty Years of Marriage, 1928. . . 122 CHART 16. Length of Married Life till Death or Divorce, 1928. . 124 CHART 17. Annual Fluctuations in Rates of Divorce and Eco nomic Production on Ratio Scale - . . 131 CHART 18. Growth of Divorce arid Four Related Factors on Ratio Scale 134 13 CHAPTER I AMERICAN FAMILY BREAKDOWN DURING the year 1929, 201,468 divorces were granted in the United States, or about one every two minutes. By cal culations to be examined in a later chapter, it is evident that about 1 8 per cent of all American marriages, or more than one in every six, definitely ends in divorce. Over half a million men, women and children are directly affected every year by the grist of the divorce mill. Divorce is legally defined in the United States as te the dissolution or suspension by law of marital relations. x The derivation of the word divorce comes from the Latindiversae mentes, or different minds. Both permanent div orces and also legal separations known as divortium a ntensa et thoro or divorce from board and bed are included in the legal definition. The latter, however, are supposed to con stitute a very small percentage of the total family disruptions, and in many states they automatically lapse into absolute divorces after a period of years. v Herbert Hoover, during his final presidential campaign speech in 1928, lauded the American home in the following tribute The unit of American life Is the family...