Developmental Psychology For Family Law Professionals

"[T]he best and most useful social science text I have read in a decadeÖ.It is comprehensive in its research and scope, clearly written and uses excellent case studies and examples to illustrate in simple terms what might otherwise be complex phenomena." --Dr. Tom Altobelli Federal Magistrate, Family Law Courts Sydney, Australia The goal of every family law professional and mental health practitioner is to improve family court outcomes in the best interests of the child. This book will assist readers in meeting this critical goal. Developmental Psychology for Family Law Professionals serves as a practical application of developmental theory to the practice of family law. This book helps family law and mental health professionals gain a broader understanding of each child's unique needs when in the midst of family crisis. It presents developmental theories with which professionals might better assess the developmental needs, synchronies, and trajectories of a given child. Ultimately, this book presents guidelines for making appropriate legal decisions and recommendations for children who have experienced crises such as abuse, neglect, relocation, divorce, and much more. Key topics include: Custodial schedules Foster and adoptive care Post-divorce disputes Termination of parental rights Psychological assessment and diagnosis Incarcerated parents and visitation rights Relocation and "distance parenting" Visitation resistance and refusal/reunification Parental Alienation/alignment and estrangement Theories of cognitive, language, and social development

This unique volume and the accompanying forms provide you with ten forensic family evaluation tools ready for immediate use. These tools have been developed by Dr. Benjamin D. Garber over the course of more than twenty years and tempered through the process of treating and evaluating hundreds of high conflict families. Ten Child-Centered Forensic Family Evaluation Tools provides the family law professional with critical means of navigating through the complex and contradictory history and reports that commonly arise in the context of custody-related litigation. These are the tools that have been missing to date, necessary if one hopes to map out the conflicted family's strengths and weaknesses, needs and wishes in an organized, systematic and reliable manner. More than just data collection, Ten Child-Centered Forensic Family Evaluation Tools anchors parent, child and third-party report in the hard data underlying psychology and family law. This volume not only makes Dr. Garber's tools available for immediate use, it provides the reader with up-to-date references to critical areas of inquiry. Responses can thus be interpreted not only by comparison among co-parents, but also by comparison between respondents and the extant literature. Use of these Ten Child-Centered Forensic Family Evaluation Tools secures evaluations in science, buttresses interpretations in empirical data, and anchors the evaluator's testimony in the contemporary literature all to the benefit of none so much as the child. Ten Child-Centered Forensic Family Evaluation Tools is structured into six broad categories. Each begins with an introduction to the general topic, includes an annotated discussion of the instrument(s) being introduced and a select list of references. The tools themselves are laid out page-by-page with critical items highlight and cross-referenced. The accompanying CD-ROM includes all ten tools ready to print and to become the foundation of the professionals' next forensic family evaluation.

This fully updated work examines all relevant aspects of adult and child psychology in relation to family and child care law. Psychology deals with behaviour - and the behaviour of parents, other carers and children in relation to one another and the world at large has obvious interest to the courts which need to determine issues coming before them. The book adopts a practical approach and explains psychological concepts, including the measurements employed, so that professionals working in this area can gain an informed understanding of the subject matter. Where there is an overlap between psychology and psychiatry, this is given further detailed consideration.

Interest in the problem of children who resist contact with or become alienated from a parent after separation or divorce is growing, due in part to parents' increasing frustrations with the apparent ineffectiveness of the legal system in handling these unique cases. There is a need for legal and mental health professionals to improve their understanding of, and response to, this polarizing social dynamic. Children Who Resist Post-Separation Parental Contact is a critical, empirically based review of parental alienation that integrates the best research evidence with clinical insight from interviews with leading scholars and practitioners. The authors - Fidler, Bala, and Saini - a psychologist, a lawyer and a social worker, are an multidisciplinary team who draw upon the growing body of mental health and legal literature to summarize the historical development and controversies surrounding the concept of "alienation" and explain the causes, dynamics, and differentiation of various types of parent-child relationship issues. The authors review research on prevalence, risk factors, indicators, assessment, and measurement to form a conceptual integration of multiple factors relevant to the etiology and maintenance of the problem of strained parent-child relationships. A differential approach to assessment and intervention is provided. Children's rights, the role of their wishes and preferences in legal proceedings, and the short- and long-term impact of parental alienation are also discussed. Considering legal, clinical, prevention, and intervention strategies, and concluding with recommendations for practice, research, and policy, this book is a much-needed resource for mental health professionals, judges, family lawyers, child protection workers, mediators, and others who work with families dealing with divorce, separation, and child custody issues.

This edited volume is written by and for mental health professionals who work directly with alienated children and their parents. The chapters are written by leaders in the field, all of whom know how vexing parental alienation can be for mental health professionals. No matter how the professional intersects with families affected by alienation, be it through individual treatment, reunification therapy, a school setting, or support groups, he or she needs to consider how to make proper assessments, how to guard against bias, and when and how to involve the court system, among other challenges. The cutting edge clinical interventions presented in this book will help professionals answer these questions and help them to help their clients. The authors present a range of clinical options such as parent education, psycho-educational programs for children, and reunification programs for children and parents that make this volume a useful reference and practical guide.

This handbook brings together the relevant literature on children and their developmental characteristics, the legal venues in which they may appear, and the systemic issues practitioners must consider to provide a thorough guide to working with children in the legal system. Featuring contributions from leading mental health and legal experts, chapters start with an overview and history of the juvenile justice system along with discussion of critical developmental areas imperative to consider for work with children, and idiosyncratic issues that arise. The book ends with a case presentation section that illustrates the varied roles and venues in which children appear in the legal system. An extended bibliography provides additional resources and literature to investigate specific topics in greater length. This accessible and useable guide is designed to appeal to a broad range of people encountering children in the legal system, including social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, attorneys, and judges. It will also benefit professions such as law enforcement as well as probation officers, child protective workers, school personnel, and medical personnel.

I have no doubt that this book will become an invaluable tool for family and children's court judges and magistrates, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, police and the many other professionals who work in this field.' The Honourable Alastair Nicholson, former Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia A ground-breaking, comprehensive, honest, well researched and courageous book that should be essential reading for all politicians and professionals involved in both the Family Court of Australia and state child protection systems.' Emeritus Professor Freda Briggs AO Child abuse in the context of parental separation and divorce is not a malicious allegation, nor a misunderstanding. It is a real and growing problem with very young children as the primary victims. Child Abuse and Family Law draws on pioneering research to identify the causes, features and impact of child abuse in parental separation and divorce. The authors argue that professionals working with these families need to better understand the specific and often severe nature of this abuse to improve outcomes for both the children and their families. The authors develop a much-needed practice framework for all socio-legal professionals involved in the family law system. Using case studies, they take a multi-disciplinary approach to outline strategies for family lawyers, child legal representatives, social workers, child protection workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, health workers and teachers.

"In the Oxford Handbook of Developmental Psychology and the Law, eminent scholars from varied disciplines detail how developmental science and the law shape one another across the lifespan. The chapters address fundamental questions about how human development influences laws and practices in the legal system and how the law and its practices influence development. The chapters, as well, reveal how the potential for, and consequences of, victimization and perpetration-whether they be criminal or civil acts-are impacted by and impact development. The diversity of topics, range of influences across the lifespan, and complexities of developmental and legal influences are on display throughout the volume. In Section I, which spanned Infancy and Childhood to Adolescence, authors covered such topics as prenatal and infant abuse; the development of antisocial behavior in children and adolescents; questioning of minor victims, witnesses, and suspects; treatment of youth in juvenile, criminal, and specialty courts but also in immigration, custody, and adoption hearings, and finally in schools and prisons. In Section II, which spanned Adulthood to Aging, authors addressed some of the same topics, but here from the perspective of younger and older adults. These include antisocial behavior in adults, the experiences of elder adults as victim/witnesses, and experiences in prison, especially among parents and the elderly. Other topics were covered as well, including persons with developmental disabilities involvement in the courts, reentry transitions after incarceration, and reproductive and end-of-life legal rights. Across this comprehensive volume, authors demonstrate the immense value of research for policy and practice and viewing legal involvement through the lens of lifespan development"--