Family Courts are Here to Stay, So Let's Improve Them

Mainstreaming Therapeutic Jurisprudence in Family Law: The Israeli Child Protection Law as a Case Study

“…49 The designers of the problem-solving courts sought to identify the unique characteristics of the offenders and to establish a mixed therapeutic-judicial framework that provides incentives to offenders to undergo rehabilitation and change their behavior in the future. 52 Recently, the TJ literature has been promoting the use of "therapeutic judicial behavior" in mainstream courts, relying on the practices that have been developed and evaluated in therapeutic and problem-solving courts as inspiration. Instead of focusing on procedural rights and legal rules, the emphasis in problem-solving courts is on changing the future behavior of the offender and attaining measurable objectives.…”

Constructing Conflict: A Discursive Analysis of Family Law Conflict

“…Th e critiques concentrate on the legal system that fails to nurture strong, positive relationships that are key to individual and societal fl ourishing (Huntington 2014). Others have insisted that family law should aspire and align itself with the ethical framework of therapeutic jurisprudence to improve the lives of children and families (Babb 2014). Remedies to improve the experience for families in this legal context include strategies that more quickly off -ramp disputants from the legal system to resolve disputes with better-tailored interventions (e.g., conferencing, mediation, parent education, unifi ed family courts, evaluations).…”

“…Particularly for families who are in most confl ict, it would seem that the decision-making environment in family law should be conducive to supporting families through this diffi cult transition (Babb 2014), and so one would expect that the C&A evaluation must at least put forward an assessment that best serves the children and function to mitigate postdivorce confl ict. Indeed, there is some general expectation that this be so.…”

Judging the Other: The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Class in Family Court

“…Virtually since its inception, juvenile court has been widely criticized on several measures, including court inefficiencies and delays, judges insufficiently attuned to the social and psychological complexity of family strife, and failing to ensure essential services and treatment (Babb, ; Kahn, ; Spinak, ). As one commentator succinctly noted, “As a problem‐solving court, Family Court has been remarkably unsuccessful” (Spinak, , p. 260).…”

“…Decades of criticism have also begotten decades of reforms, both procedural and substantive. Some examples include unified courts where a single court system handles all types of family law cases and infusing a more therapeutic, problem‐solving approach into proceedings (Babb, ).…”