Child Custody and Visitation Disputes in Sweden and the United States: a Study of Love, Justice and Knowledge

What are the social and cııltural features that most impact the interpretation of the legal standard best interest of the child? One method for answering this question is through a comparison of two societies, Sweden and the United States,both of which apply the same legal standard to similar contested custody and visitation cases. Diane M. Pranzo’s Child Custody and Visitation Disputes in Sweden and the United States approaches love, justice, and knowledge as separate discourses. Love encompasses the interpretations of the actors whose claims arise from the emotions associated with çare, concern, and relationships—namely parents, the children who are the subject of a case, and other family members.Justice encompasses the interpretations and claims that are made by judges, but its discourse includes the legal process and legal policies. Knowledge is encompassed by the concerns and claims of professionals and experts, including social science discussions of çare, vvelfare, and psychology and the interpretations and descriptions given by the professionals and experts regarding the actors in the cases.This book, comparing two societies with a focus on the interaction between howthese three discourses are deployed in the process of decision making in best interests of the child disputed custody cases, depicts features of decision making that would be unavailable to researchers studying custody disputes in only one society. Intended for an academic audience with interests in sociology of the family, sociology of law, and sociology of childhood, this book is accessible to upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, especially those majoring in sociology, social work, or law and society.