Private Practice Scottsdale, ArizonaAs the field of forensic family law has become more empirical and in need of novel behavioral health services, it has become necessary to broaden the duties of practitioners, to clarify forensic roles, and to develop more comprehensive court orders. This article introduces the application of Forensically Informed Evaluations and Therapeutic Interventions in family court; a constellation of evaluations and interventions developed to better meet the needs of children and families during and after dissolution or reconstitution. These family court appointments also meet the growing demands of the court and contribute to the trend toward discriminative application of empirically informed behavioral health services in forensic family law.
FORENSICALLY INFORMED EVALUATIONS AND THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTIONS IN FAMILY COURTThe application of psychology to forensic family law has grown so rapidly that new levels of professional practice are needed. More advanced knowledge, a better understanding of the needs of the court, and more discriminatory use of behavioral health evaluations and interventions are required. As child custody cases and other family-related issues have become more complex, the field of psychology has not advanced in its ability to tailor services to the changing needs of the family law system. Comprehensive child custody evaluations, alternative dispute resolution, and mediation have appropriately met the needs of some family law cases, but not all. Cases involving issues such as family reconstitution, modification, relocation, infant overnight access, paternity, domestic violence, child abuse allegations, and normal postdivorce concerns require more multifaceted, empirically informed services.
THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRSEach year, the family court refers thousands of family law cases to behavioral health professionals for assessment and intervention. The most common referrals are those for comprehensive child custody evaluations that involve assessment of family members in order to assist the judge in making child custody and parenting-time decisions.We present this article as a step toward a greater integration between the judiciary and forensic psychologists. We hope that you will consider implementing that which you find helpful and contact us with additional suggestions. The original version of this article was a bench book which included sample court orders, reading, and website resources. The article is an expansion of Kenney & Vigil (1996).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.