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Comment by mchanson | Hacker News Reader

Actually its over 70% of kids in USA grow up with two parents still. 50 years ago it was 85%, but that would have been with a lot of unhappy and abusive marriages that now with no-fault divorce are able to be dissolved.

Also child sexual and physical abuse has reduced during this same time frame. "According to David Finkelhor who tracked Child Maltreatment Report (NCANDS) data from 1990 to 2010, sexual abuse had declined 62% from 1992 to 2009 and the long-term trend for physical abuse was also down by 56% since 1992." from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abuse

We have a lot of problems, but your understand of the issues are poor.

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It’s closer to 60% if we limit biological parents: That’s only to note that step parents are significantly more likely to abuse, so the way this plays out is complicated. https://pure.hud.ac.uk/en/publications/violence-against-chil....

Twice as many children are raised by single mothers today compared to 50 years ago. Maybe that’s the more relevant statistic? (Yes there are hero stories where one could argue this doesn’t matter…)

What's the relationship between abusive marriages and no-fault divorce? Won't abusive people be the easiest to divorce with fault?

Fault divorce is more expensive and requires burden of proof.

Abuse isn't always reported, and abusers often manipulate or lie.

That's theory. In reality abused women may choose not to attempt to divorce (or even leave) their abusive husband since they fear retaliation.

How is that relevant? Why would no-fault divorce help that situation?

Abusers are at their most dangerous when you try to leave them. They will be even more dangerous if you have to damage their public reputation with the ugly truth to try to escape.

No fault divorce makes it vastly easier to divorce for a lot of reasons and making it unnecessarily hard to leave can foster situations where it becomes abusive because they don't get along that well and can't just up and leave because they want to.

Understood, but in this context of parenting and looming child support, would that not present an equally difficult situation?

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