Welcome to People for Equal Parenting

5/3/06 Legislative Testimony – Doug Conley

Chairman Wentworth and Members of the Committee, my name is Doug Conley. I am a member of an organization called People for Equal Parenting – which I’ll call “PEP” for the remainder of my testimony. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

PEP is a nonprofit organization that works primarily to educate people about issues connected to family law. It was set up in 2004 and since then over 1,000 members have joined via the website at www.pepintexas.org.

One of the things I’ve learned as a member of PEP is that as many as 2 out of 3 divorces between parents are filed because the person who files believes he or she will be awarded a larger share of the custody of the children – as well as a monthly forced income transfer from the other spouse.[1] The written summary of my testimony today cites the Brinig and Allen study that supports this observation. The empirical data suggests that what we have is a legal system that actually provides incentives for the destruction of the traditional American family.[2] In light of this, I believe that Texas’ child custody laws require an immediate honest evaluation.

Destroying traditional families is bad public policy when we consider that – compared to children from traditional families – children from nontraditional families[3] are:

· Between 2-1/2 and nearly 6 times as likely to experience poverty;[4]

· 2-3 times as likely to exhibit significant emotional or behavioral difficulties;[5]

· 77% more likely to be physically abused;[6]

· 87% more likely to be harmed by neglect;[7]

· 74% more likely to suffer emotional neglect;[8]

· 80% more likely to be seriously injured as a result of abuse;[9] and

· More than twice as likely to be committed to a state reform institution.[10]

As an individual, and as member of People for Equal Parenting, I have confidence that the Texas legislature as a whole, and this Committee in particular, will move expeditiously to take the requisite steps implicated by available information, which is to enact a legal presumption of equal physical child custody when fit parents divorce. Nothing we can do as a government would do so much, so fast, to slow down our divorce rate and the resulting damage to the children of the state of Texas.

Thank you, for your kind attention.

[1] See, Brinig, Margaret F. and Allen, Douglas W., "'These Boots are Made for Walking': Why Most Divorce Filers are Women" ( 2000). American Law and Economics Review, Vol. 2, pp. 126-169, 2000.

[2] By “traditional” I mean a family consisting of biological mother and father living in the same household with their offspring.

[3] By “nontraditional” I mean a family not consisting of a biological mother and father living in the same household with their offspring.

[4] See, Kids Count Data Book 2000. Baltimore, MD; The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2000: 12; and Rank, Mark R., and Hirschl, Thomas A., “The Economic Risk of Childhood in America: Estimating the Probability of Poverty Across the Formative Years”. Journal of Marriage and the Family 61 (November 1999): 1058-1067; and Dalaker, J. and Proctor, B., “Poverty in the United States: 1999”, Current Population Reports, P60-210. Table B-3. Washinton, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau, 2000.

[5] Zill, N. and Shoenborn, C. “Child Development, Learning and Emotional Problems: Health of Our Nation’s Children”. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, Advance Data 1990. Washington, D.C.: GPO, November 16, 1990.

[6] Sedlak, A. and Broadhurst, D. “The Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect: Final Report”, U.S .Department of Health and Human Services. National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. Washington, D.C., September, 1996.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Beck, Allen, Susan Kline, and Lawrence Greenfield. “Survey of Youth in Custody, 1987”. U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Washington, D.C.: GPO, September 1988.