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The child custody evaluation: Issues and trends
Author(s) -
Simons Virginia,
Meyer Karen Grais
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.2370040204
Subject(s) - child custody , presentation (obstetrics) , mental health , psychology , process (computing) , child abuse , point (geometry) , criminology , suicide prevention , poison control , law , psychiatry , political science , medicine , medical emergency , computer science , mathematics , radiology , operating system , geometry
Custody disputes are often the crisis point in the divorcing process and the numbers of contested custody cases are increasing. Mental health professionals are being called upon to provide evaluations of these families more frequently than ever. This article focuses on how to perform child custody evaluations. It touches on the highly troublesome cases where accusations of abuse and alcoholism have been made, and how to convey to attorneys the findings of an evaluation. It begins by reviewing developments in child custody law and concludes by addressing the problems between behavioral sciences and the law in these stressful cases. The presentation of clinical examples provides a view of the decision making process, while addressing the contextual setting for these cases as well.