Forensic Psychology; Guardians ad Litem; Therapeutic Jurisprudence PSYCHOLOGY; CUSTODY EVALUATIONS; THERAPY  

Posted by Claudine Dombrowski

Forensic Psychology; Guardians ad Litem; Therapeutic Jurisprudence


The sociological and psychological research on families and child well-being impacts public policy and the issues of child custody in family law. The research frequently is misrepresented, and mis-cited by mental health professionals, lawyers, forensic psychologists and others, as well as interest groups lobbying for laws. Also review the sections pertaining to the issues impacted by the "therapeutic jurisprudence", such as child custody, parental alienation theory, research pertaining to child development, the subsection for research Myths and Facts in FAMILY LAW, and other family law issues. Also see the subsection on Child Custody in FAMILY LAW. The Therapeutic Jurisprudence index page contains links to recommended off-site locations as well as the on-site articles

  • Index: Therapeutic Jurisprudence
    This section of the website contains current public material from on-going research being conducted around the United States and in Canada by various scholars and organizations who are sharing findings, as well as links to articles and off-site locations on the issue of the harmful use of psychology and psychological theories in the family court systems. Therapeutic jurisprudence in the family courts, i.e. a "mental health approach to the law" substitutes the opinions of mental health practitioners for traditional evidence and decision-making procedures. Because these persons actually do not have any kind of "expertise" to opine this way, what originally was thought to be a helpful idea (in this medicalized and psychologized world) has become merely economic opportunism, harming not only the litigants and children in the system as well as the court system itself, but also perverting substantive and procedural law. It is not science, but compensated yenta-ism that has permeated the courts under the pretexts that engineering family affectional relationships is within the ability of mental health "science" practitioners to accomplish, and that this is an appropriate goal of the government, court system, and state police power because children "need" something it has to offer. See additional comments on this index page here. If you are interested in activism, helping with research in your state, or contributing articles or materials on "therapeutic jurisprudence" contact cce-research@argate.net
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  • Are Psychologists Hiding Evidence? A Need for Reform by Lees-Haley and Courtney SCHOLAR
  • Child Custody Evaluations and Measuring Attachment (limited science) by Jean Mercer 2009 PDF SCHOLAR
  • Child sex abuse, the limits of Loftus, and overblowing the memory research LIZNOTES, CITES
  • Children's Associational Rights: Why less is more by Emily Buss PDF SCHOLAR
  • Collaborative Law: What's Wrong with Multidisciplinary Practice? by liz
  • Court-appointed Parenting Evaluators: The Case for Abolition by Margaret Dore PDF SCHOLAR
  • Custody evaluators' arguments about test records -- and why they're wrong
  • Custody Evaluations: Ten Signs of Questionable Practices by Joel V. Klass, M.D. SCHOLAR
  • Disciplining Divorcing Parents: Social Construction of Parental Alienation by F. Besset PDF SCHOLAR
  • Family Court is Not a Family-Friendly Place by Lisa Marie Macci, Esq.
  • Guardians ad Litem in Custody Litigation: The Case for Abolition by Richard Ducote PDF SCHOLAR
  • Parental Alienation Syndrome -- getting it wrong in child custody cases by Carol S. Bruch PDF SCHOLAR
  • Parenting Coordination Issues by liz
  • Psychiatric experts assess parental alienation by David Crary
  • Psychology in Court: A Trial Within a Trial by liz
  • Psychology in Court: The Detectives by liz
  • Psychology in Court:The Diagnosticians by liz
  • Psychology in Court: Discovery of Test Data by liz
  • Psychology in Court: How to Respond to the MMPI-2 by liz
  • Reevaluating the Evaluators (overview of the problem) by liz CITATIONS TO RESEARCH
    Custody Evaluator Quotes by liz (companion to above article)
  • Signs of a Bad Custody Evaluation by Joel V. Klass, M.D. SCHOLAR
  • Socialization, Personality Development, and the Child's Environments by Judith Rich Harris SCHOLAR
  • Sound Research or Wishful Thinking in Custody Cases? by Carol S. Bruch PDF SCHOLAR
  • Troubling Admission of Supervised Visitation Records in Court by Stern/Oehme PDF SCHOLAR
  • What Does the Guardian ad Litem do in Family Court? by liz
  • Warren Farrell Does a Custody Evaluation by liz
  • What's Wrong with Parenting Coordination by liz
  • Why "Therapeutic Jurisprudence" Must Be Eliminated From Our Family Courts by liz
  • Why "Therapeutic Jurisprudence" Must Be Eliminated From Our Courts by liz (pub. version)
  • Critical Assessment of Child Custody Evaluations by Emery, Otto, Donohue off-site PDF SCHOLAR
  • Guardians ad Litem; Parenting Coordinators; Custody Evaluators, etc.  

    Posted by Claudine Dombrowski

    Guardians ad Litem; Parenting Coordinators; Custody Evaluators, etc.

    Social Workers, Visiting programs, batterer so called treatment bullshit TREC --- Safe Visit, Connie Sanchez and all those others who have created job security by protecting bad dad, hating women, and getting kick backs perks and pay offs for spilling the blood of mothers and their children. Horizons Bud Dale, Sherri Keller Shawnee County Courthouse…… and many more.


    This category includes the various forms of so-called ADR (alternate dispute resolution) practitioners, such as GALs, parenting coordinators, parenting evaluators, forensic psychologists, recommending mediators, special masters, court-ordered therapists, other court-appointed mental health professionals, supervised visitation centers, and other profiteers of "therapeutic jurisprudence", whose methods involve -- in non-criminal cases -- intrusion and coercion under the threat of court sanctions, and actual or de facto extra-judicial decision-making. This website heavily criticizes all of these practices, which have multiple things wrong with them, not the least of which is denigration of due process, and the diminution of a publicly observable, regulated, and appealable "rule by law" by substituting the caprice of men and women. These practices have been promoted as "cures" for ailings of the court system and the litigants in it by self-serving persons who apparently are ignorant, or else just do not care about the harms they cause to children and their parents because they make money from the ideas they promote, churning profit in proceedings that fly in the face of the foundations of our justice system.

    The bulk of these materials are listed in the section on PSYCHOLOGY. Also see the sections on the specific substantive issues, such as child development or parental alienation.

  • Court-appt'd Parenting Evaluators and GALs: The Case for Abolition by Margaret Dore PDF SCHOLAR

  • Guardians ad Litem in Custody Litigation: The Case for Abolition by Richard Ducote PDF SCHOLAR

  • Guardians for Profit: LA Times expose, elder abuse by professional conservators by LA Times Staff

  • Parenting Coordination Issues (outline) by liz

  • Parenting Coordinators, Practical Considerations by liz

  • Proper Role of Mental Health Professionals in Domestic Violence Cases by Barry Goldstein, Esq. Editorial

  • Psychological Testing in Family Court - Discovery Issues by liz

  • Psychological Testing in Family Court - How to Respond to the forensic MMPI-2 by liz

  • Signs of a Bad Custody Evaluation by Joel V. Klass, M.D. SCHOLAR

  • Stuart A. Greenberg, Ph.D., Fraud and Sexual Perversion in a "Top" Custody Evaluator

  • Troubling Admission of Supervised Visitation Records in Court by Stern/Oehme PDF SCHOLAR

  • What's Wrong with Parenting Coordination by liz

  • Fathers Rights - Mysogynists, Woman Haters, Who Attack All Women  

    Posted by Claudine Dombrowski

    Southern Poverty Law Center on the Fathers' Rights Movement

    Monday, 19 March 2012 15:16

    "...an underworld of misogynists, woman-haters whose fury goes well beyond criticism of the family court system, domestic violence laws, and false rape accusations. There are literally hundreds of websites, blogs and forums devoted to attacking virtually all women (or, at least, Westernized ones)

    -- the so-called "manosphere,"... While some of them voice legitimate and sometimes disturbing complaints about the treatment of men, what is most remarkable is the misogynistic tone that pervades so many. Women are routinely maligned as sluts, gold-diggers, temptresses and worse; overly sympathetic men are dubbed "manginas"; and police and other officials are called their armed enablers...

    "But some experts argue that men's rights groups have been remarkably successful... have taken over the way courts deal with custody issues, particularly when there are allegations of abuse, largely by convincing them that there is such a thing as 'Parental Alienation Syndrome' (PAS)... have 'been able to get custody evaluators, mediators, guardians ad litem and child protective service workers to believe that women and children lie about abuse.'...

    http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/spring/a-war-on-women

    Source: Justice Posterous

    American Mothers Political Party Denounces “Dominick’s Law” In Michigan  

    Posted by Claudine Dombrowski

    American Mothers Political Party Denounces “Dominick’s Law” In Michigan

    Written by Staff

    Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:07

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    American Mothers Political Party
    March 20, 2012

    American Mothers Political Party

    Denounces “Dominick’s Law” In Michigan

    Mothers are the natural guardians of children as Corrine Baker was when she used her own body as a shield to try and protect her child, Dominick Calhoun.

    Neighbors ignored her screams and authorities said Baker did not do “enough” to protect her son from a fatal beating inflicted by her then-live-in boyfriend, Brandon Joshua-Frederick Hayes, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for torture, murder and child abuse.  This is what second degree (scapegoating) manslaughter looks like is when a woman endures this kind of beating trying to protect her child.

    It has been duly noted that those supporting and those who are the purported “creators” of Dominick’s Law and the recent threats that have been made against those that support Dominick’s mother.  We are not deterred.

    According Michigan Legislature: 
    http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/20112012/billintroduced/House/htm/2011-HIB-5078.htm

    (g) "Serious mental harm" means an injury to a child's mental

    condition or welfare that is not necessarily permanent but results

    in visibly demonstrable manifestations of a substantial disorder of

    thought or mood which significantly impairs judgment, behavior,

    capacity to recognize reality, or ability to cope with the ordinary

    demands of life.

    “Dominick's Law” will only justify what Michigan has done to this battered mother who tried to protect her child and all future domestic abuse victims.  In essence, the pseudo-scientific theory of Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) will be legal in Michigan if this law is passed the way it is currently written.  What is “enough” to protect a child from harm?

    American Mothers Political Party is not just mothers but fathers, sisters aunts, daughters, sons, nieces, nephews, family, friends, coworkers and neighbors who support battered mothers and their rights to raise their children.

    Until human mothers are honored or recognized as the natural guardians of her children, no rights will exist for any one. “Mother” is the cry of the dying soldier on the battlefield, “Mother” is the first person everyone sees when they are born, all other species “get this” - all except the terribly wrong and failed “human experiment”' of the murder of motherhood, and everyone's else’s rights over mother nature’s.

    AMPP will not support this law as it is currently written and will continue to denounce those that mean to do the supporters of mothers harm.

    # #

    Videos http://vodpod.com/ampp/corrinebaker

    American Mothers Political Party Denounces “Dominick’s Law” In MichiganAMPP stands in support of Corrine Baker. Authorities said Baker did not do enough to protect her son from a fatal beating inflicted by her then-live-in boyfriend, Brandon Joshua-Frederick Hayes, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for torture, murder and child abuse. ALTHOUGH SHE USED HER BODY AS SHIELD.

    Take a Look at what 2nd degree (scapegoating) manslaughter is when you endure this kind of beating trying to PROTECT her CHILD.The DA is scapegoating the Calhoun's are scapegoating and Dominick's law will only JUSTIFY what MI has done to this battered mom who tried to protect!! 15-30 years!! Scapegoating!!!

    Topeka, KS - TREC- Child Trafficking and profiting agency- Whores of the Court Who endanger Women and Children Assist Batterers in getting custody of their Children from the mother in Revenge for her leaving him.  

    Posted by Claudine Dombrowski

     

    Every one jumps aboard the job created security band wagon of taking battered mothers children from them. What is wrong with these people? Batterers who are a threat and or are dangerous to need supervision CHILDREN DO NOT NEED THIS!!!

     

    TREC aka Odyssey, Kara Haney  (who actually admits supporting abusers) and Julie Damron-Dittmer, as well as safe Visits Connie Sanchez have a NOTED HISTORY of keeping battered mothers away from their mothers. See: Claudine Dombrowski and Rikki Dombrowski Case- The 8 time convicted and admitted Batterer HAL G. RICHARDSON.

     

    Social Workers ARE NOT trained by the State of Kansas to DEAL with Batterers, Their program is their own program- and does nothing but hurt victims of violence. The Mothers and the Children. This is truly a govt sanctioned and tit sucking agency.  They all feed off the Family Court tit, they all make more money by supervised visits and by keeping the cases in the family court for years!!

     

    All the little (cant make it any other way) for profit Whores of the Court Batterer and Pedophile Friendly – Battered Mother Child harvesting---

    SHAME!!!

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    Area agency attempts to fill gap from United Way cuts

    http://cjonline.com/news/2012-03-18/area-agency-attempts-fill-gap-united-way-cuts

    Julie Damron-Dittmer, family services director for the Treatment Resource and Education Center, sits in one of the facility's new rooms for families to visit in.   ANN WILLIAMSON/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

    ANN WILLIAMSON/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

    Julie Damron-Dittmer, family services director for the Treatment Resource and Education Center, sits in one of the facility's new rooms for families to visit in.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    By Aly Van Dyke

    THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

    With news of United Way funding cuts to another children visitation and exchange service in Topeka, the Treatment Resource and Education Center has stepped up services to meet the need.

    TREC, which operates out of 220 S.W. 33rd St., has tripled its space, doubled its visitation staff and upped its security — all in an effort to fill a gap that will widen if Safe Visit closes its doors.

    Safe Visit is a support program under the YMCA umbrella and operates out of the Seaman Church, 2036 N.W. Taylor. The 15-year-old Topeka program — which provides more than 1,000 supervised visits and exchanges of children a year — announced in January it might have to cease operations by the end of February.

    But program administrator Connie Sanchez said that won’t happen.

    “We’re going to make it,” Sanchez said Friday. “We’ve just gotten a lot of support, and I’ve heard from so many people that we can’t go away.”

    News of Safe Visit’s potential closure came on the tails of an announcement from United Way of Greater Topeka that the agency wouldn’t be awarded any noncommitted money this year. In the past, Safe Visit received $70,000 from United Way — about half of the organization’s budget.

    It is one of eight former United Way programs that didn’t receive funding in the first round of applications. Two programs — Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas’s Parent Child Learning Center and Breakthrough House’s Emergency Aid program — have ceased because of the funding cuts.

    United Way of Greater Topeka committed more than $6 million during the next three years to area nonprofit groups, with its first round of funding. Another $543,000 has been designated to local agencies. The agency is planning two more funding rounds in 2012.

    In the wake of Safe Visit’s previous announcement, TREC prepared to fill the void — though it wasn’t clear exactly how big it that would be. At different times, the number of families that would need help ranged from 170 cases a week to 300.

    “We didn’t know what we needed to be prepared for,” said Julie Damron-Dittmer, family services director for TREC. “There was a lot of confusion about what was going to happen.”

    So TREC contacted the landlords of its Visit/Exchange Center and increased its space from five suites to nine. It added seven on-call visitation staff members to its staff of five.

    TREC also increased security both for on- and off-site visits — a need, Damron-Dittmer said, because Safe Visit is known for its security.

    “One judge describes TREC as the place to send families that don’t have a safety concern, and Safe Visit for those that do,” she said, adding that the new security measures should change that perception.

    At least one security staff member is on site at all times, she said, and the program now has the ability to call in law enforcement for off-site visits.

    With the new space — renovated with personal money from the organization’s five administrators — TREC can accommodate more than 670 visits a week, Damron-Dittmer said. The number of referrals and families has increased since Safe Visit’s announcement, she said.

    TREC does some things differently from Safe Visit, Damron-Dittmer said — the primary difference being that TREC supervises off-site visits, some as far away as Kansas City.

    Safe Visit doesn’t offer off-site supervision, Sanchez said, because both state and national standards consider community supervision a safety risk.

    Visit arrangements also depend on what the judge orders, Damron-Dittmer said, and can be changed through a judge if safety is considered an issue. The program also does home studies before visitations.

    TREC tries to accommodate the family as much as possible, too, she said. The center has visits until 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 6 p.m. Saturdays and 5 p.m. Sundays. It opens at 8 a.m. every day except Sunday, when services start at 1 p.m.

    And TREC doesn’t rely on any grant funding, Damron-Dittmer said. None of the money the nonprofit receives goes to pay administrative salaries, she said. They work as volunteers.

    Instead, money goes to pay the security and supervision staff and, she said, “to keep the lights on.”

    Although the United Way of Greater Topeka has opened its noncommitted funds to all area nonprofits, Damron-Dittmer said, she has no intention of applying for anything at this time.

    Relying on grant funding isn’t secure, she said.

    TREC also provides a batterers’ intervention program, counseling and therapy services and outpatient drug and alcohol therapy.

    Law Center on the Fathers' Rights Movement  

    Posted by Claudine Dombrowski

    Southern Poverty Law Center on the Fathers' Rights Movement

    "...an underworld of misogynists, woman-haters whose fury goes well beyond criticism of the family court system, domestic violence laws, and false rape accusations. There are literally hundreds of websites, blogs and forums devoted to attacking virtually all women (or, at least, Westernized ones) -- the so-called "manosphere,"... While some of them voice legitimate and sometimes disturbing complaints about the treatment of men, what is most remarkable is the misogynistic tone that pervades so many. Women are routinely maligned as sluts, gold-diggers, temptresses and worse; overly sympathetic men are dubbed "manginas"; and police and other officials are called their armed enablers...

    "But some experts argue that men's rights groups have been remarkably successful... have taken over the way courts deal with custody issues, particularly when there are allegations of abuse, largely by convincing them that there is such a thing as 'Parental Alienation Syndrome' (PAS)... have 'been able to get custody evaluators, mediators, guardians ad litem and child protective service workers to believe that women and children lie about abuse.'...http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2...

    New study -- Fathers kill children for revenge on their mothers when the women leave them  

    Posted by Claudine Dombrowski

    New study -- Fathers kill children for revenge on their mothers when the women leave them

    "A new study of child murders... men and women are equally capable of killing children, but their motives for killing are very different. Men are more likely to kill their children in order to take revenge on ex-partners and to make them suffer... The study, Just Say Goodbye, draws on court documents to analyse cases where children have died at the hands of parents whose relationship has broken down...

    "[E]ven more than violence, research shows that a history of obsessive controlling behaviour -- a sense of entitlement -- can be a pointer to a man's inability to accept the separation... vengeful enough to kill their children to punish her for the separation...

    "[O]ften obscured is the father's attitude to the mother during and after the relationship, his sense of entitlement to control the family, extreme anger with the mother over separation, and threats to harm the children..." http://www.theage.com.au/national/child-killer-study-finds-diverse-motives-fo...

    Filed under  //   child custody fathercare fatherhood exaltation judge media bias psychology punishing mother therapeutic jurisprudence