Child Custody: Practices and Perspectives of Legal Professionals

Abstract

To explore the attitudes and practices of both judges and attorneys involved in child custody determinations, the present study attempted to elaborate the views of legal professionals on different types of custody arrangements, the criteria that attorneys and judges employ in formulating child custody decisions (particularly joint vs. sole custody), the relative emphasis they accord to each, and policy recommendations for improving the context in which child custody decisions are made. The major findings reveal that legal professionals see joint custody as neither the most desirable nor the appropriate custody arrangement in most cases and they question the ability or motivation of divorcing couples to cooperate to the extent necessary for joint custody to be viable. Their policy recommendations demonstrate the openness of legal professionals to go beyond traditional judicial processes in arriving at custody decisions and underscore the need for close collaboration between the mental health and legal disc...