Persuasive Essay On Family Law Reform

Misery, abandonment, and no love, how can one let a child grow up with thoughts so negative running through their minds? Children are removed from their homes, forced to live in strangers houses, and expected to behave like they live in a stable living environment. All this is occurring so fast, that they can’t process their situation and feel like they don’t have anyone in the world that loves them. Although our nation claims to be doing the best they can with child welfare, the entire program has focused their efforts on removing children from their homes instead of focusing on the child’s emotional needs. Mr. President, we need to fix this issue now because children are the future. When a family is torn apart because allegations of abuse, neglect, or financial issues, placing a child in foster care, rather than trying to fix the problem, can only further damage a child’s well being.

In recent decades, there has been a shift in the definition of a family to better suit the new emerging alternative family arrangements in today’s society. A family is defined as the natural and fundamental group unit of society especially in relation to the upbringing of children. However, this Eurocentric, nuclear family construct has evolved as alternative family arrangements such as de-facto and same sex relationships as well as adoptive families have become part of the term ‘family’. The domestic legal system has introduced and amended laws to deal with these contemporary issues. Similarly, there are non-legal responses such as the media and various non-governmental organisations, which advocate for various changes to the law in order to achieve greater justice for these families.

Laws in most states mandate that reasonable efforts be provide to families who become involved with child welfare agencies.  Social workers, on behalf of the agency toil to provide reasonable efforts to families.  Presumptively, reasonable efforts are provided for families to mitigate the issues that brought them to the attention of child protection agency.

Family law is the most complex aspect of the Australian legal system as it is constantly under review and reform pursuing to adopt society’s continual change in values and principles. The changing of laws in an attempt to be parallel with society is a strenuous process. Nevertheless, legislations are reflective of contemporary society’s values and ethics. Numerous legal issues arise in regards to family including, same sex relationships, domestic violence and divorce ideally on the best interest of the child, where family laws have been imposed to protect individuals and aim to achieve justice.

Two of the most hot-button issues faced in the 2016 election included abortion rights and gun control. Since President Trump’s election these issues have remained at the forefront of political discussion. With several months still remaining, 2017 had already claimed the reputation for the deadliest year for mass shootings in America’s history (Wilson, 2017). We began 2017 with six killed in the Ft. Lauderdale airport and progressed, to 58 killed in Las Vegas at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, to the most recent incident that left 26 dead in a Texas church. In addition to these three most notable events, there have been many other shootings that have brought the causality total to 112 with 531 wounded from mass shootings alone (Wilson, 2017). These senseless deaths left the American public emotionally drained and searching for a solution to a problem that the government is hesitant to proactively address, but rather leaves to the individual state’s discretion.

There are many different laws and policies that the government put in place which will affect various social issues; in this case the family. Some sociologists believe that this social policy the government enforces can make the family far more diverse; whilst others disagree. An example of this social policy can be in China there is a ‘one-child policy’, which limits families from having more than one child and in the instance that they do have more the government can inflict a series of penalties, this policy is in place to control the population of China; ‘For a prosperous, powerful nation and a happy family, please use birth planning’. In the following item I intend to discuss how social policies and laws in the UK may have affect the

Family Law Act 1975, in the same year established the Family Court of Australia, and the Act focuses on issues as a result of martial breakdown, such as ‘no fault divorce’; best interest of children, equal valuation of partners contributions (breadwinner / homemaker), equal consideration of mother and father when assessing custody. The Act has been amended and evolved to include coverage for casual and de-facto relationships and ex-nuptial relationships, including distribution of debts and Superannuation as equal property, strengthening court process around domestic and family

The second account of a changing stance toward children’s rights was evolution alongside women’s rights. Before this time, women and children were seen as unimportant under the law, whereas a father was given almost total control over all matters regarding his wife and children. If a father was violent or neglectful, society simply turned their shoulder to it. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, laws pertaining to the family system began to change. A new law recognized the equal rights of fathers and mothers with the mother’s rights reigning over the fathers in regards to the children. Also, the legal system began viewing children as important to the future of society, therefore “appropriate objects of the court’s

The effectiveness of legal and non-legal responses concerning contemporary issues within families is to a moderate extent. For example, whilst legal responses such as the Family Law Act 1975 (FLAct) and the Property (Relationships) Act 1984 creates enforceability and fairness, there is a great lack of equality and, in some cases, a lack of timeliness which is shown in the article Caught in the Middle of Parenting Nightmare1 in which two parents have fought for more than 7 years about their child’s upbringing. Furthermore, whilst non-legal mechanisms such as the media creates fairness and accessibility, there is a lack of enforceability as the media does not hold legislative power. The contemporary issues that exist within families include divorce,

The Children Act 1989 is the first document that introduced the concept of parental responsibility instead of parental rights as the welfare of all children is paramount and the recognition of early problems can have a faster outcome. It is the local authorities duty to identify,

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The Contribution of the New Right to Our Understanding of the Role of the Family in Society

When a married couple decides to call it quits, the next thing they are most likely to do is to file for a divorce (or an annulment, in case divorce is not permitted in the country where they exchanged I do’s).

Over the last five decades, our society has undergone huge demographic shifts with regards to the family. (Faith and Family, 2005) Sixty five years ago seventy-eight percent of families lived in a household where the head of household was married. Only fifteen years ago nearly half of all American lived within a home where the head of household is unmarried. This shift in authority within the home has had an effect of the way that the public views the authority of law enforcement personal.

Single parenthood is an obstacle that can be overcome with the right support system and enough resiliency . Until recently, my daughter (Lizzie Jo) and I had been by ourselves for almost 3 years. Raising a little girl from the ages of 1.5 to 4.5 years by myself has been one of the hardest and most fulfilling journeys of my life. She has taught me humility, patience, and she has granted me wisdom in facets of life where these traits were lacking. Lizzie was just 16 months when the judge ordered the custody agreement. His decision made my visitation rights change from seeing my daughter everyday to two days one week and four days the next. I firmly believe there is no greater obstacle than a judge telling you when you can and cannot see your child. Unfortunately, most times these decisions are made out of necessity and under circumstances out of anyone's control.