Addressing key topics in child custody evaluation, this book provides essential knowledge for practitioners who want to meet the highest standards for both scientific validity and legal admissibility. The authors are leading experts who describe the latest data-based approaches to understanding and assessing relevant child, parent, and family factors. Going beyond the basics, the book gives in-depth attention to controversial challenging, frequently encountered issues, such as how to evaluate allegations of domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and child alienation. Also covered are the challenges complexities of interviewing children effectively and working in the adversarial forensic context. A user-friendly appendix contains sample letters and statements of understanding, with permission to photocopy.

450 pgs

"A groundbreaking book by Gould and Martindale. Their expertise provides the reader with a comprehensive guide to building the best possible child custody evaluations, with a thorough examination of issues such as minimizing and correcting for an evaluator's bias and assessing allegations of domestic violence, sexual abuse, and alienation. An exquisite work by two of the field's most brilliant forensic experts!"

-Leslie M. Drozd, PhD, Editor, Journal of Child Custody

"Gould and Martindale have given mental health professionals a thoughtful, thorough, and impressively evidence-based overview of the what, how, and why of child custody evaluations. I want separated parents to decide what's best for their own children, but when they can't or won't, I urge custody evaluators to follow Gould and Martindale's careful advice. This book should be read by students and professionals not only for the information it offers, but also for its cautions-ethical, practical, and human."

-Robert E. Emery, PhD, Department of Psychology and Center for Children, Families, and the Law, University of Virginia

"The past decade has seen a sea change in custody evaluations, from impressionistic interviews and 'clinical wisdom' to systematic evaluations and data-based findings. In this extraordinarily clear and well-written book, Gould and Martindale explain key forensic methods of custody evaluation, laying bare their foundations and showing how to apply them to everyday work. The book is simultaneously a manifesto for the new era of custody evaluations and a handbook for those who perform them. It is a fine starting point for graduate students in forensic psychology, fellows in forensic psychiatry, and mental health professionals entering the field of custody evaluation, and will also help the most experienced evaluators refine their thinking. The emphasis on risk management should help evaluators minimize the formal complaints that are the bane of their existence. Judges and lawyers will appreciate the book's authoritative, jargon-free exposition."

-Robert M. Galatzer-Levy, MD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago, and Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis