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Marital Breakdown and Divorce Over the last 40 years, sociological research has provided statistics suggesting a significant increase in the number of marriages ending in divorce. In this essay I aim to justify this increase and explain why statistics may give a misleading picture. The way I have decided to structure this essay is firstly to look at a brief history of the laws governing divorce over the last century, then to discuss the statistics and finally to conclude with possible reasons and feasible explanations as to why there has been such an increase. The divorce courts were first established in 1857, under the Matrimonial Causes Act, thus enabling the middle classes to get divorced. At this time there were only three grounds for divorce, being cruelty, insanity or desertion and were each as difficult to prove as the other. Also, obtaining a divorce was a very costly procedure. Prior to this,...

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