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A FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY MODEL OF RISK ASSESSMENT FOR CHILD CUSTODY RELOCATION LAW
Author(s) -
Austin William G.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
family court review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.171
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 1744-1617
pISSN - 1531-2445
DOI - 10.1111/j.174-1617.2000.tb00569.x
Subject(s) - relocation , harm , psychology , dilemma , criminology , risk assessment , social psychology , computer security , computer science , philosophy , epistemology , programming language
Relocation in child custody presents a psycho‐legal dilemma of trying to preserve stability in the child's residential family unit while maintaining continuity in the role of the nonresidential parent. Courts have shown a strong preference to permiting the child to move away with the residential parent unless there is a showing of potential harm to the child. The forensic violence risk assessment literature provides an analogous conceptual framework for understanding the prediction of harm. Instead of predicting violence, the evaluator is predicting the effect of environmental circumstances on the child's adjustment. A forensic psychology model of risk assessment is adapted to the relocation problem. The elements of the model are an expected base rate of short‐term emotional distress due to relocation, risk and modulating factors, and how to handle the potential consequences of prediction errors. A hierarchical predictive process, derived hypotheses, and practical considerations in relocation are discussed.