"Psychosexual evaluation" in divorce cases - anyone familiar with this?

[airportwoman]

I was dinking around on another website this evening, and while I've certainly known, and known of, people who had to have various kinds of psychiatric evaluation as part of a divorce or custody process, I had never heard of specifically this, and it sounds like it's done if there's any possibility of sexual abuse from either party, even if it's just on a say-so.

I'm sure hoping this kind of thing isn't very common.

 

[LadyL]

never heard of it!

 

[ifindedout]

Any idea what country it involves, or state/province?

 

[Spyralflare]

It wouldn’t be relevant in the states where infidelity isn’t faulted legally, I wouldn’t think. Would one partner be trying to make the other out as having some version of sexual deviation or violent behavior towards them? Not sure what it would gain the person requesting it, but interesting.

 

[annemc2]

Here's a description from a psychology practice

Psychosexual Evaluation - Levitan Psychology

www.levitanpsychology.com

Compared to a more court/legal type explanation

The Objectives of Psychosexual Evaluations

www.psychologicalaffiliates.com

Similar yet different perspectives.

 

[airportwoman]

Any idea what country it involves, or state/province?

United States.

 

[airportwoman]

It wouldn’t be relevant in the states where infidelity isn’t faulted legally, I wouldn’t think. Would one partner be trying to make the other out as having some version of sexual deviation or violent behavior towards them? Not sure what it would gain the person requesting it, but interesting.

In short, without anything more that could potentially identify the people involved, it sounds like this couple is in the midst of a very ugly divorce, and the wife is trying pretty much everything to ensure that the father not only does not have custody, but does not have visitation rights either.

I have no idea if any of this is warranted; who knows, it may be, and if it isn't, it sounds like a slam-dunk for HER to have her custody revoked, IMHO.

 

[Charlot123]

I was dinking around on another website this evening, and while I've certainly known, and known of, people who had to have various kinds of psychiatric evaluation as part of a divorce or custody process, I had never heard of specifically this, and it sounds like it's done if there's any possibility of sexual abuse from either party, even if it's just on a say-so.

I'm sure hoping this kind of thing isn't very common.

I’ve heard about it, about ten years ago, and indeed, in the context of the ugliest divorce and the battle about paternal rights. The person passed but the process might have been very traumatic. I am not sure about the legality of it. Also, I am skeptical about any studies that have not been normed in matching groups. The validity of the evaluation should be pretty low.

 

[starlightstarbright]

I have a family member who I would imagine had something similar in terms of an evaluation by a psychiatrist/psychologist (I read the report and it seems similar to the links above), but his marriage ended because he sexually abused his child and his abuse of his child came out of twisted hang ups that he had in his marriage. It was used in the criminal case, but I can’t imagine it also didn’t figure into his divorce. His wife got a very healthy financial settlement as she well should have given the trauma she had to support her child through.

 

[airportwoman]

I'm guessing that most lawyers discourage this kind of thing, especially if there is no other evidence besides the spouse's word, that this kind of thing has happened.

I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but I have never heard of a sexually abusive relationship that wasn't abusive in pretty much every other way as well.

 

[Interested_But_Confused]

This sounds like the kind of evaluation that could be easily misused.

It would be appropriate in helping to determine if a person's behavior was sexually abusive, if there was a legitimate case to be made; but equally, it could be used by an abusive partner to further traumatize their victim.

 

[airportwoman]

These evaluations last 8 to 10 hours, usually to be performed all on the same day, and must be done in person. This has GOT to cost a fortune.

 

[airportwoman]

I'm going to add that this was in the context of a certain divorce case involving a locally prominent person, and interestingly, NEITHER of them appears to have any other criminal record, not even speeding tickets. I did see "Contested Divorce" in there somewhere in the court records.

His Facebook page shows him with their children, and they do look genuinely happy. Hers only has pictures of her, and links to local events she was involved with, and no reference to any other family, immediate or extended. I do know that people can put whatever they want on Facebook, but smiles of young children are pretty hard to fake.

 

[Miquitah]

I often assist in conducting psychosexual evaluations, although it's rare for them to be requested in divorce cases. The usual circumstances are that the plaintiff wants to restrict their partner's post-divorce access to younger children. They may genuinely suspect abuse, or it could be a battle tactic, but for such an accusation to be taken seriously there has to be evidence beyond the word of the child. They're usually performed at the request of the defendant's attorney (along with a polygraph and psych testing) to show the judge that the defendant has no sexual interest in children and no other "deviant" sexual tendencies. The cost depends on the psychiatrist-- a starting point is around $4000.

 

[Charlot123]

I'm going to add that this was in the context of a certain divorce case involving a locally prominent person, and interestingly, NEITHER of them appears to have any other criminal record, not even speeding tickets. I did see "Contested Divorce" in there somewhere in the court records.

His Facebook page shows him with their children, and they do look genuinely happy. Hers only has pictures of her, and links to local events she was involved with, and no reference to any other family, immediate or extended. I do know that people can put whatever they want on Facebook, but smiles of young children are pretty hard to fake.

Let us put it so. Maybe it is done differently in different situations, but i only base on what i was told. When they measure certain physiological reactions/responses to certain pictures, even if the responses are present, they still don't prove that the person behaves in a certain way in the community. Also, to decide whether one passed or failed, we have to have, say, a 1000 of men matching in age and other characteristics, and test their responses. Who would volunteer for it? Imagine any man being approached to be the volunteer for the tests, where do you think they'll send the investigators with their proposals? So I am positive that no normalization has even been made. Likewise, absence of reaction doesn't say much (the person who passed - maybe he was a latent gay and didn't respond to that group of photos? How do we know what absence of reaction means? By huge statistical data, but i doubt such exists for these studies).

 

[gitana1]

It is rare in a divorce/custody case. I haven’t handled one case involving such a test. But they have been conducted in a few cases I’ve heard about with serious abuse allegations.

A major case that ultimately involved child custody but not divorce, ended up with an ordered psycho-sexual test- Susan Powell went missing and pretty everyone believed her husband Josh Powell killed her.

He didn’t allow Susan’s family to see his and her kids after that. Things went along until the paternal grandfather, Steve Powell, was arrested in a sting for producing CSAM and for voyeurism. Since Josh Powell and his kids lived with Steve Powell, the authorities took the kids and Susan’s parents were granted temporary custody. Josh Powell was given supervised visits. (It’s more involved than that but suffice it say that there was so much more that led the authorities to be highly concerned about the boys’ safety in their dad’s custody).

Then, the test was ordered. Before he could take it, Josh Powell welcomed his kids into his home for a visit but locked the woman who had brought his kids for a monitored visit, out of the house. She had been following behind the kids.

As she called 911 and banged on the door, he took a hatchet to his kids’ heads, lit the house on fire, ultimately causing it to explode, and shot himself.

 

[airportwoman]

Thanks, everyone, for your feedback.

While I never saw this on their court dockets, I found out that a local woman, who at the time they filed for divorce co-owned a company with her husband (and she served a term as mayor of the town where she lives) has been in active divorce proceedings FOR SIXTEEN YEARS. That is not a typo. After a while, I mean, what's the point?