Family evaluation in custody litigation: reducing risks of ethical infractions and malpractice
✍ Scribed by David A. Martindale
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2003
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 77 KB
- Volume
- 21
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0735-3936
- DOI
- 10.1002/bsl.544
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Early this year, the American Psychological Association (hereinafter APA) released a text authored by Andrew Benjamin and Jackie Gollan entitled Family Evaluation in Custody Litigation: Reducing Risks of Ethical Infractions and Malpractice. The text, described on its dustcover as having been ''written for the novice evaluator,'' purports to encourage ''adherence to the highest ethical standards.'' The authors provide useful information concerning assessment instruments, encourage evaluators to entertain alternative hypotheses, inform readers concerning multiple relationships, discourage one-sided evaluations, and emphasize the importance of securing data from multiple sources. Notwithstanding these positive features, the book, on balance, is seriously flawed. In the opinion of this reviewer, APA erred in deciding to publish this text in its current form. For that reason, this review catalogs the text's shortcomings.
DESTRUCTION OF RECORDS
In their Preface, Benjamin and Gollan declare that their ''first and most compelling purpose is to reduce the damaging stresses that are imposed on children . . . '' (p. ix). As I see it, that sounds more like a clinical objective than a forensic objective; however, even if we were to accept the legitimacy of this ''compelling purpose,'' the best protection for children is provided when the decision handed down is a wise one. The probability that judges will arrive at wise decisions is increased when evaluators' recommendations (if challenged) can be examined. When the fate of children lies in the hands of judges and when the judges will be relying heavily upon advisory input from forensic mental health professionals, the interests of the children are best served when evaluators do their jobs well and protect both their actual and their perceived integrity by making all data that have been considered by them available for inspection. Philosophy precedes methodology. In the field of forensic assessment, methodology is dictated by the philosophy that everything