A Comprehensive Guide to Child Custody Evaluations: Mental Health and Legal PerspectivesThe “Ultimate Issue” – Recommendations
A Comprehensive Guide to Child Custody Evaluations: Mental Health and Legal Perspectives: The...
Rohrbaugh, Joanna Bunker
2008-01-01 00:00:00
THE “ULTIMATE ISSUE” – RECOMMENDATIONS CURRENT PRACTICES AND GUIDELINES ecent research (Bow & Quinnell, 2002) indicates that most Rchild custody reports include recommendations regarding physical custody (92%), legal custody (85%), and visitation (81%), and many others also recommend psychotherapy for parents (64%) or children (40%). Both judges and attorneys want the input of these recommendations, which they see as one of the most valuable parts of the reports (Bow & Quinnell, 2004; Poythress, 1981; Stahl, 2005). Professional guidelines support the provision of recommendations as long as they are based on verified information that is carefully incorporated into clinical inferences and impressions (AAPL, 1995; APA-med, 1988) and custody evaluators explain the version of the best interests standard that they are using (APA, 1994). Despite these accepted practices, recommendations have recently been the subject of heated controversy among forensic psychology scholars. Let’s examine the central elements of this controversy and then consider how to write reports that are sensitive to these issues. ARGUMENTS AGAINST RECOMMENDATIONS Insufficient Scientific Information Several renowned forensic psychologists have argued that there is not enough sound behavioral science research that is relevant 107 108 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS to custody evaluations and decisions (e.g. Melton et al., 1997; Schepard,
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A Comprehensive Guide to Child Custody Evaluations: Mental Health and Legal PerspectivesThe “Ultimate Issue” – Recommendations
THE “ULTIMATE ISSUE” – RECOMMENDATIONS CURRENT PRACTICES AND GUIDELINES ecent research (Bow & Quinnell, 2002) indicates that most Rchild custody reports include recommendations regarding physical custody (92%), legal custody (85%), and visitation (81%), and many others also recommend psychotherapy for parents (64%) or children (40%). Both judges and attorneys want the input of these recommendations, which they see as one of the most valuable parts of the reports (Bow & Quinnell, 2004; Poythress, 1981; Stahl, 2005). Professional guidelines support the provision of recommendations as long as they are based on verified information that is carefully incorporated into clinical inferences and impressions (AAPL, 1995; APA-med, 1988) and custody evaluators explain the version of the best interests standard that they are using (APA, 1994). Despite these accepted practices, recommendations have recently been the subject of heated controversy among forensic psychology scholars. Let’s examine the central elements of this controversy and then consider how to write reports that are sensitive to these issues. ARGUMENTS AGAINST RECOMMENDATIONS Insufficient Scientific Information Several renowned forensic psychologists have argued that there is not enough sound behavioral science research that is relevant 107 108 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS to custody evaluations and decisions (e.g. Melton et al., 1997; Schepard,
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