Assessing allegations of domestic violence in high -conflict child custody cases

• Main Author: Harris, Amy L
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2004
• Subjects: Clinical psychology; Psychotherapy
• ISBN: 9780496806577; 0496806572

Currently there are no clear standards for our best practices in assessing allegations of domestic violence in child custody cases. Moreover, there is virtually no information on what is actually being done in the field by custody evaluators on a day-to-day basis. This study focused on gathering such information from custody evaluators through the use of a survey. A two-page questionnaire was mailed to 205 licensed psychologists experienced in conducting child custody evaluations. Both closed and open-ended questions were used in the questionnaire. The questions focused on estimations of how often allegations of domestic violence occurred in the context of child custody evaluations, what sources were used to assess the allegations, and in general, what sources proved to be the most and least helpful. There was a moderate response rate of 54%, thus the results of this study may be generalizable to the group of evaluators from which this sample was drawn. Amongst the evaluations conducted within the past two years by the participants, on average, 42% of the evaluations involved allegations of domestic violence, and of those, 67% were believed by the evaluators to be true. This study indicated there was significant overlap of the methods being used to assess allegations of domestic violence by child custody evaluators. The methods included interviews, collateral contacts, review of records, and psychological tests. However, there were significant differences within the methods being used. Ultimately, it would be important to establish a scientifically derived standard child custody evaluation process with a focus on evaluating for the presence of domestic violence.