Citation

Drozd LM, Olesen NW. J. Child Custod. 2004; 1(3): 65-106.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1300/J190v01n03_05

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Allegations of family violence, child abuse, and alienation often occur in the same contested child custody case. Custody eval-uators often are poorly trained in forensic assessment of allegations of domestic violence and allegations of alienation. The authors of this article suggest language that is designed to differentiate between cases in which the term alienation is appropriate, as in non-abuse cases, and when it is best to use other language such as estrangementsabotaging, and counter productive protective parenting in cases where there is abuse. This article describes a decision tree that is designed to assist evaluators in identifying the causes of multiple allegations of maltreatment and abuse.