© 1995 by Oxford University Press
research-article |
SOCIAL WORK IN DIVORCE: WELFARE, MEDIATION AND JUSTICE
* Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Studies, University of Hull, England. This article is based on a paper given at the Third European Conference on Legal Professions, Rouen, France, in July 1994. This article is based on research funded by Economic and Research Council grant no. R000 23 1589.
In many countries divorce rates have climbed in the last thirty years, often overloading civil justice systems resulting in moves towards no-fault divorce laws, administratively-based divorce systems and increasing the significance of welfare professionals and mediation in divorce. This article, drawing on a recently completed study of the work of Family Court Welfare Officers in England and Wales, argues that ‘traditional’ welfare investigation practices have given way to mediation-based approaches and that mediation is increasingly being presented to the courts as the most appropriate means of addressing child-welfare concerns. Thus, mediation is becoming synonymous with child welfare. It is also argued that there are powerful tensions between the legal, the welfare, and the social perspectives and processes which define the divorce experience which are important contributors to the pressures for reform of divorce law. It is therefore further argued that, as a consequence, the welfare process and the related discourse is beginning to assume the role of mediation between the legal and the social processes, by providing a forum which attempts to reconcile the conflicts between these perspectives and processes in divorce. The article concludes that the consequent linking of divorce and mediation, whilst presenting important opportunities, also carries with it dangers which should not be ignored.