The Costs and Pitfalls of Individualizing Decisions and Incentivizing Conflict: A Comment on Afcc's Think Tank Report on Shared Parenting

• Published in: Family court review Vol. 52; no. 2; pp. 175 - 180
• Main Author: Braver, Sanford L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Madison Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.04.2014; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: and Think Tank; Approximation Rule; Association of Family and Conciliation Courts; CHILD CUSTODY; Conflicts; Cost; COSTS; Custody; Custody Evaluation; Dispute resolution (Law); FAMILIES; Incentives; Interparental Conflict; Joint custody of children; Parents & parenting; Presumptions (Law); Proposals; Shared Parenting
• ISSN: 1531-2445; 1744-1617
• DOI: 10.1111/fcre.12079

The AFCC Think Tank on Research, Policy, Practice, and Shared Parenting is quite groundbreaking, had an all-star cast, and the issues could hardly be more important to our organization. Yet, many will regard the final report from the think tank as disappointing because, simply, it fails to say very much. I argue that the reason is that the think tank gave too little consideration to two interlocking costs to the families. First are the costs associated with individualizing decisions on a case-by-case basis. Much as it may be desirable, we may really not know how to properly individualize, tailor, or custom-fit parenting plans to achieve the best possible outcomes in each case. So, the effort and expense and time and trouble taken in the futile pursuit of case-specific decisions come with little corresponding benefits. Better to have a starting place that covers the majority of cases and families, with, of course, the ability to deviate when the fit is obviously bad. The general public strongly believes that shared parenting is that starting place and that any other position is biased. The second cost is that vagueness and ambivalence will ultimately be iatrogenic for families by leading to greater conflict.Various proposals under consideration differently incentivize parents to engage in that conflict. Presumptions, of any flavor, generally minimize such incentives. A shared parenting presumption would minimize that incentive most of all.