A model for predicting court decisions on child custody
Awarding joint or sole custody is of crucial importance for the lives of both the child and the parents. This paper first models the factors explaining a court’s decision to grant child custody and later tests the predictive capacity of the proposed model. We conducted an empirical study using data...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2021-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8530287/?tool=EBI |
| _version_ | 1818739303859093504 |
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| author | José Félix Muñoz Soro Carlos Serrano-Cinca |
| author_facet | José Félix Muñoz Soro Carlos Serrano-Cinca |
| author_sort | José Félix Muñoz Soro |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Awarding joint or sole custody is of crucial importance for the lives of both the child and the parents. This paper first models the factors explaining a court’s decision to grant child custody and later tests the predictive capacity of the proposed model. We conducted an empirical study using data from 1,884 court rulings, identifying and labeling factual elements, legal principles, and other relevant information. We developed a neural network model that includes eight factual findings, such as the relationship between the parents and their economic resources, the child’s opinion, and the psychological report on the type of custody. We performed a temporal validation using cases later in time than those in the training sample for prediction. Our system predicted the court’s decisions with an accuracy exceeding 85%. We obtained easy-to-apply decision rules with the decision tree technique. The paper contributes by identifying the factors that best predict joint custody, which is useful for parents, lawyers, and prosecutors. Parents would do well to know these findings before venturing into a courtroom. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-18T01:22:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-682c3397f4b34c0ab26fd6c3593f2249 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-18T01:22:42Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-682c3397f4b34c0ab26fd6c3593f22492022-12-21T21:25:48ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032021-01-011610A model for predicting court decisions on child custodyJosé Félix Muñoz SoroCarlos Serrano-CincaAwarding joint or sole custody is of crucial importance for the lives of both the child and the parents. This paper first models the factors explaining a court’s decision to grant child custody and later tests the predictive capacity of the proposed model. We conducted an empirical study using data from 1,884 court rulings, identifying and labeling factual elements, legal principles, and other relevant information. We developed a neural network model that includes eight factual findings, such as the relationship between the parents and their economic resources, the child’s opinion, and the psychological report on the type of custody. We performed a temporal validation using cases later in time than those in the training sample for prediction. Our system predicted the court’s decisions with an accuracy exceeding 85%. We obtained easy-to-apply decision rules with the decision tree technique. The paper contributes by identifying the factors that best predict joint custody, which is useful for parents, lawyers, and prosecutors. Parents would do well to know these findings before venturing into a courtroom.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8530287/?tool=EBI |
| spellingShingle | José Félix Muñoz Soro Carlos Serrano-Cinca A model for predicting court decisions on child custody PLoS ONE |
| title | A model for predicting court decisions on child custody |
| title_full | A model for predicting court decisions on child custody |
| title_fullStr | A model for predicting court decisions on child custody |
| title_full_unstemmed | A model for predicting court decisions on child custody |
| title_short | A model for predicting court decisions on child custody |
| title_sort | model for predicting court decisions on child custody |
| url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8530287/?tool=EBI |
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