This chapter describes some of the ways that clinical psychologists contribute to the legal system and to legal decision-making. Forensic psychologists contribute to decisions about whether a defendant is competent to stand trial, whether a defendant was insane at the time he or she committed a crime, and whether certain individuals are a threat to themselves or others. Clinicians also become involved in civil actions, such as determinations about the role of stress or the extent of psychological damage following accidents or other traumatic events. Their involvement in criminal profiling and psychological autopsies is infrequent, but forensic clinical psychologists are commonly asked to perform activities such as psychological evaluations in child custody and divorce proceedings.

The 1970s saw the rise of shaken baby syndrome diagnoses. In many countries this has led to children placed in custody and parents prosecuted. Child protection services were rapidly established in Anglo-American countries from the 1970s. Often professionals were mandated to report to government authorities on suspicion of child maltreatment, with the definition expanded to include physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and neglect. In the desire to keep children safe, child abuse paediatricians may be reluctant to accept possible non-abuse causes for medical findings. Instead of adversarial child protection systems focused on removal of children to keep them safe from dangerous parents, Nordic and some Continental European countries have a family-support orientation. This views abuse as a problem of family conflict or dysfunction arising from social and psychological difficulties, which will respond to support and help. Out-of-home care is last resort. The way that child abuse is framed influences outcomes for children and their families to a much greater extent than whether or not there is mandatory reporting.

Physical possession is among the legal standards Chinese judges can apply in child custody determinations: whether a change in the status quo would undermine the best interests of the child. Because children in rural areas overwhelmingly live with their fathers or paternal grandparents, and because judges overwhelmingly apply this physical possession standard, judges’ child custody orders are entirely consistent with the adage, “Possession is nine-tenths of the law.” Women who fled domestic violence often left their children behind in the possession of their abusive husbands. Because defendants, simply by withholding consent, could so easily prevent courts from granting divorces, women frequently bargained away their child custody rights in exchange for their freedom. In both scenarios, courts deferred to the patriarchal order by privileging fathers’ child custody claims. Even when there were compelling and legally justifiable grounds for rejecting the status quo on the grounds that it posed a safety risk to the child, judges nonetheless tended to apply the physical possession standard. Judges had no apparent hesitation to grant custody to perpetrators of domestic violence.

Quantitative analyses of child custody determinations reaffirm and build on findings reported in previous chapters. Just as domestic violence allegations did not increase the likelihood that courts granted women’s divorce requests, they likewise did not increase the likelihood that courts granted child custody to marital abuse victims. Owing to the dominant rural practice of patrilocality, fathers were more likely than mothers to have physical possession of their children. As a result, judges rewarded rural men with child custody for beating their wives. Judges supported the patriarchal family in additional ways. Rural courts tended to grant custody of only-sons to fathers. In rural areas, mothers’ best chances for child custody came from multiple children and from only-daughters. In cases involving siblings, courts frequently split them up between the parents. In cases of mixed-sex siblings, courts typically granted custody of sons to fathers and custody of daughters to mothers. Fathers’ advantages in child custody determinations were limited to rural areas, which accounted for most child custody determinations. Urban courts, by contrast, favored mothers over fathers.

Chapter 4 examines the historic Islamic Law rules and assumptions which underpin issues relating to the custody of children. These historic rules have over time evolved into the modern Family Law of many, if not all, Muslim Family Law States on matters pertaining to child custody. The assumptions about, amongst others, what is in the ‘best interests’ of the child, the role of the mother and the obligations and duties of fathers are unpacked through a close reading and analysis of these rules, from both the pre-modern legal tradition and through two extended case studies (Qatar and Pakistan). Only once the assumptions underlying these rules on jurisdiction and custody, now adopted in Muslim Family Law States, are duly understood can we appreciate the obstacles that need to be tackled on parental child abduction matters. Examining how courts in Pakistan and Qatar approach the issue at hand, we identify how the historical rules have manifested themselves in practice in modern nation states.

This chapter provides an overview of forensic mental health assessments in criminal, civil, and juvenile and family court settings. We begin with a general discussion of the nature and method of forensic assessment, highlighting the various data sources on which a forensic assessment is based and the hypothesis testing nature of the evaluation process. We then turn to an overview of the most common types of assessments conducted within the criminal forensic context (adjudicative competence, criminal responsibility, risk assessment and management), the civil forensic context (personal injury, disability determination, worker’s compensation), and the juvenile and family court contexts (parenting capacity, child custody, juvenile waiver to criminal court). Finally, we end with a general discussion of the importance of the written evaluation report.