VICTIMIZATION OF NON-CUSTODIAL PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS, AND CHILDREN ASA FUNCTION OF SOLE CUSTODY - VIEWS OF THE ADVOCACY GROUPS AND RESEARCH SUPPORT

While the country has seen an increase in joint custody arrangements o ver the last two decades, many states still exercise a de-facto presum ption of sole custody for one parent and ''visitation'' status for the other. However, during the last several years, evidence has mounted t hat sole custody/visitation arrangements create unnecessary and unwarr anted victimization of non-custodial parents, grandparents, and childr en at the hands of the custodial parent. The purpose of this paper is to present the evidence on this victimization, in concert with the evi dence from selected advocacy group publications for non-custodial pare nts, in an effort to expand the current investigations to a broader ec ologically based perspective which includes all emotionally relevant e xtended family members. Methodological concerns and directions for fut ure research will be highlighted.