Hawaii Forensic Psychology

Abstract: One type of claim in par­ent­ing assess­ment (child custody)1 cases is that one par­ent, typ­i­cally the father, is alleged to be engag­ing in improper or com­pul­sive sex­ual behav­ior via the Internet. The sex­ual behav­ior at issue can range from fre­quent sex­u­ally explicit chats with other adults to com­pul­sive view­ing of adult pornog­ra­phy. In more extreme cases, the prob­lem­atic behav­ior may involve view­ing child pornog­ra­phy, and in some cases, the par­ent faces actual crim­i­nal charges in this regard. The present arti­cle reviews the cur­rent sci­en­tific knowl­edge base for eval­u­a­tion of risk in such par­ent­ing eval­u­a­tion cases and pro­vides some guide­lines and rec­om­men­da­tions for an eval­u­a­tor in the assess­ment process.

Phillip H. Witt, Hannah L. Merdian, Mary Connell, Douglas P. Boer, Assessing Parental Risk in Parenting Plan (Child Custody) Cases Involving Internet Sexual Behavior, Open Access Journal of Forensic Psychology, http://www.forensicpsychologyunbound.ws/ – 2010: 2: 116–136