Introduction to Care and Protection Evaluations

Abstract

This introductory chapter describes the landscape of psychology, law, ethics, and standards of practice for forensic mental health evaluations in care and protection matters. Parenting involves a broadly defined set of skills and abilities embedded in cultural and other contextual features. Measures for child safety, within families, within cultural groups, and within legal definitions and statutes, vary across jurisdictions. However, statutorily defined infringements of parenting responsibilities also contain some common elements across jurisdictions. Most statutes address physical abuse, sexual abuse, and physical and emotional neglect. The breadth and specificity of definitions vary widely, as will be illustrated in later chapters. Some statutes increase specificity by adding inclusionary or exclusionary criteria based on child developmental trajectories, sometimes incorporating developmental principles or constructs into statutory language. Definitions in state statutes show some correspondence to mental health and social service definitions of child maltreatment, but there are many differences in constructs and definitions across the legal, social services, and mental health systems.