Marriage,Cohabitation, and Crime: Differentiating Associations by Partnership Stage

A wealth of scholarship generally finds that marriage protects against crime, but there is less consistent evidence for cohabitation. In this article, we contribute to scholarship on marriage and put forward new evidence about cohabitation by examining marital and cohabiting partnerships as transitions with distinct stages of entry, stability, and dissolution. We use within-person change models with contemporary data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to analyze these stages for the full sample and separately for men and women. The findings show differential protective associations of marriage and cohabitation depending on the stage of the partnership. Both recently formed cohabiting partnerships and stable cohabiting partnerships are associated with reductions in the level of offending, although to a lesser degree than marital relationships. Cohabiting partnerships that are stable, in that they have lasted at least a year, are associated with larger decreases in offending, particularly among women.     

The Competition–Violence Hypothesis: Sex,Marriage, and Male Aggression

Sexually active men, who are not in a monogamous relationship, may be at a greater risk for violence than men who are sexually active within monogamous relationships and men who are not sexually active. The current study examines changes in sexual behavior and violence in adolescence to early adulthood. Data on male (n = 4,597) and female (n = 5,523) respondents were drawn from four waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent and Adult Health (Add Health). HLM regression models indicate that men who transition to a monogamous, or less competitive, mode of sexual behavior (fewer partners since last wave), reduce their risk for violence. The same results were not replicated for females. Further, results were not accounted for by marital status or other more readily accepted explanations of violence. Findings suggest that competition for sex be further examined as a potential cause of male violence.     

重新审视我国的事实婚姻

事实婚姻是指男女双方未办理结婚登记手续 ,以夫妻名义共同生活 ,群众也认为是夫妻的一种合法婚姻。《婚姻法》的根本目的在于保护当事人的权益。事实婚姻与登记婚姻都是当事人根据自己不同的要求作出的选择 ,在不违反公序良俗的前提下 ,法律应当尊重男女双方的意思自治 ,自由选择结婚方式。     

非婚同居的规制不会冲击结婚登记制度

结婚登记制度是非婚同居产生的制度条件,非婚同居不是对现行婚姻制度的冲击,非婚同居制度与结婚登记制度可以相得益彰。法律保护非婚同居,虽在一定程度上弱化婚姻法价值导向,但并没有动摇婚姻的主流地位,破坏家庭法目标的实现。婚姻危机无法缓解,并不能因此归责于法律承认和保护了非婚同居,而应正视和反思婚姻制度自身所面临的问题。法律对非婚同居的承认,并不排斥婚姻制度,人们根据自身的需要选择不同的两性结合方式。婚姻依然是人类自我延续和子女健康成长的必不可少的组织,应将婚姻置于优先保护的地位,赋予婚姻与非婚同居不同的待遇,婚姻家庭模式的主流地位得以巩固。     

How unique is the Western European marriage pattern?: A comparison of nuptiality in historical Europe and the contemporary Arab world

In this article a comparison is drawn between the historical Western European marriage pattern (WEMP), and more recent trends in nuptiality in Arab countries. This comparison makes clear that marriage behavior in the present-day Arab world shows striking similarities to nuptiality patterns which have been described by Hajnal and adherents as typically Western European. Due to a combination of economic hardship, ever growing costs in the marriage ceremony, prolonged education and the emancipation of women, people in the Arab world have started to marry at ever higher ages during the past decades. Moreover, there are indications that universal marriage is in decline. Just as Western European couples in the nineteenth century had to spend years of saving in order to meet the economic requirements for marriage, young couples in today's Arab world have to postpone marriage as they are only at a more advanced age able to bear the economic burden involved in getting married. Striking is also the fact that marriage restriction in both societies started at a moment when the social and legal position of women was improving (in late Medieval Western Europe and today in the Arab world). However, in some ways the historical Western European marriage pattern differs from the contemporary Arab pattern. No other marriage regime has been able to completely reduce fertility and balance population growth to economic development. Whereas population growth in pre-twentieth century Europe was only restricted by nuptiality control, demographic expansion in present day Arab society is also restricted by modern family planning. Declining nuptiality in the Arab world can however not, as some might assume, be put under the header of the Second Demographic Transition observed in Western societies, from the 1960s on. After all, until today, a rise in cohabitation and extra-marital births has not occured in the Arab world.     

INTEREST IN MARITAL RECONCILIATION AMONG DIVORCING PARENTS

This study offers the first research data on the interest of divorcing parents in marital reconciliation. A sample of 2,484 divorcing parents was surveyed after taking required parenting classes. They were asked about whether they believed their marriage could still be saved with hard work, and about their interest in reconciliation services. About 1 in 4 individual parents indicated some belief that their marriage could still be saved, and in about 1 in 9 matched couples both partners did. As for interest in reconciliation services, about 3 in 10 individuals indicated potential interest. In a sub‐sample of 329 matched couples, about 1 in 3 couples had one partner interested but not the other, and in 1 in 10 couples both partners were interested in reconciliation services. Findings were consistent across most demographic and marital factors. The only strong predictors of reconciliation interest were gender, with males being more interested than females, and initiator status, with far greater interest among those whose partner initiated the divorce. These findings are discussed in terms of attachment theory and future prospects of divorce services.     

当代青年的择偶标准及其性别差异——对1255则征婚广告的内容分析

通过对《现代家庭》杂志2000年1月至2010年10月所刊载的1255则征婚广告进行内容分析,并与1990年的统计结果对比发现：性格与品德已成为青年择偶时最为关注的因素;健康、对感情的重视程度、户口、住房等因素发挥着越来越重要的作用,被关注的程度上升;年龄因素仍很重要,排名第二,但已有淡化之势;身高、婚史状况、受教育程度、职业、事业心等因素的关注度呈现下降趋势,尤其事业心作为隐性潜能并未被征婚者所重视;兴趣爱好因素至少在通过征婚广告择偶的人群中被忽略;性别是影响择偶标准的一个敏感因素;在许多择偶标准上,男女存在显著差异。     

论无效与可撤销婚姻制度的立法完善

我国无效婚姻与可撤销婚姻制度的相关立法还存在可撤销婚姻的法定情形过于单一、对无效婚姻与可撤销婚姻的法律后果没有进行区分等不足,需要通过扩大可撤销婚姻的范围、规定无效婚姻宣告制度、细化行使请求权的主体和期限、区分无效婚姻与可撤销婚姻的法律后果、强化对善意相对人的保护等来进一步加以完善,以适应新时期调整婚姻家庭关系的需要。     

Informed powerlessness: child marriage interventions and Third World girlhood discourses

Child marriage has gained increased international prominence over the past decades. Organisations working with the issue have promoted empowering girls as the best strategy to address it. Informed by postcolonial feminist theory, this article will locate these discourses in broader ‘turn to the girl’ and ‘turn to agency’ in international development, analysing how Third World girlhood, agency, resistance and voice are conceptualised. Girls are constructed as threatened by their families and communities, with agency exercised through resistance and materialised by their voice. I argue that this ignores the complexity of decision-making processes and broader structural factors related to child marriage, so that interventions providing ‘empowerment-as-information’ for girls to be agents of change instead leave them in a state of informed powerlessness.