Strengthening the Father-Child Relationship through a Joint Custody Presumption
![handle is hein.journals/willr35 and id is 611 raw text is: COMMENT
WILLAMETTE LAW REVIEW
Volume 35:3 Summer 1999
STRENGTHENING THE FATHER-CHILD
RELATIONSHIP THROUGH A JOINT CUSTODY
PRESUMPTION
STEPHANIE N. BARNES*
I. INTRODUCTION
Approximately 20,000,000 children in the United States will
grow up without the benefit of day-to-day parenting by a fa-
ther.' Several factors may contribute to a father's absence, in-
* Third-year student, Willamette University College of Law. The author gradu-
ated in May 1999 and clerks for the Honorable Peter D. McDermott, District Court
Judge, Sixth Judicial District for the State of Idaho.
1. Welfare Reform Proposals, Including H.R. 4605, The Work and Responsibility
Act of 1994: Hearing on H.R. 4605 Before the House Committee on Ways and Means,
Human Resources Subcommittee, 103d Cong., 2d Sess. (July 28, 1994) (statement of
Bill Harrington, Nat'l Dir., American Fathers Coalition). Four out of ten children in
the United States go to bed every night in a home without their father present.
OREGON TASK FORCE ON FAMILY LAW, FINAL REPORT 5 (1997) [hereinafter TASK
FORCE REPORT]. Nationally, single mothers head 9.86 million families. See Dana
Milbank, More Dads Raise Families Without Mom, WALL STREET J., Oct. 3, 1997, at
B1. In Oregon, 25% of all households are headed by a mother with minor children.
See TASK FORCE REPORT at 46. In 1990, 15% of Oregon's children lived with single
mothers. See id. at 47.
The importance of the father-child relationship has been recognized at a national](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/willr35&div=29&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Strengthening the Father-Child Relationship through a Joint Custody Presumption
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