The impact of parental homosexuality in child custody cases: a review of the literature

As a result of the relatively high rate of divorce in this country and the increasing awareness that many parents (an estimated 1.5 million) are homosexual, the courts, as well as divorce mediators, have become actively involved in child custody placement decisions involving homosexual parents. While custody decisions have tended to reflect stereotyped beliefs or fears concerning the detrimental effects of homosexual parenting practices on child development, a review of the research consistently fails to document any evidence substantiating these fears. A number of specific custody issues are discussed as well as social factors relevant to lesbian motherhood. In conclusion, several authors call for increased awareness of the facts of homosexual parenting by lawyers, judges, and other professionals involved in homosexual parent-child custody cases.     

Death in custody: a historical analysis

This research delineates the historical evolution of death in custody. A retrospective, exploratory analysis of 145,425 cases from Maryland's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, occurring from 1939 to 2004, was conducted. Two hundred and two custodial deaths were identified and subsequently examined relative to time, agency, decedent characteristics, and cause and manner of death. Results indicate that there have been substantive changes in custodial deaths over time. Cardiovascular disease was the most frequent cause of death from the 1930s to the 1970s, except for the 1940s, when syphilis and tuberculosis took precedence. Asphyxia, the predominant cause of death in the 1980s, reflected an increase in suicidal hangings. Emerging in the 1980s, drug intoxication deaths were prevalent in the 1990s and 2000s. Sudden unexplained deaths involving violent behavior, the use of multiple restraints, and drug intoxication were not identified until the 1980s, coinciding with periods of increased cocaine abuse nationally.     

Police custody: deaths and medical attention

Information was obtained from all the county constabularies regarding deaths and medical attention given to those in police custody. It was presumed that this information covered all deaths in custody in Denmark during the period 1981 through 1985. There is no apparent increase in the absolute number of deaths during detention during the period 1969 through 1985. The number of deaths occurring in custody in relation to the annual number of persons incarcerated has fallen during the period 1955 through 1985. Simultaneously, a marked rise has occurred in the number of persons held in police custody. During the period 1981 through 1985, 7.9 persons were incarcerated per 1000 population per year. One homicide and nineteen other deaths occurred. The most frequent cause of death was asphyxiation as a result of aspiration of gastric contents during alcohol intoxication, drug poisoning, and intracranial hemorrhage. A physician had been consulted but had not diagnosed the seriousness of the condition in 42% of the deaths. All the deceased were men, and all suffered from the effects of social, psychiatric, and physical diseases. The lethality evaluated from hospitalized clients with the same type of life-threatening conditions was found to be 25%. A discussion is presented of the costs which will be incurred if a large group of those kept in police custody were admitted to hospital. Similarly, changes in the present arrangements are suggested that could ensure a greater certainty of avoiding deaths in detention.     

Maternal and joint custody

The present study examined differences between 40 couples who agreed to traditional mother custody and 12 couples who agreed to joint custody as the postdivorce arrangement for their children. Data were collected by interview and questionnaire within six months of the filing of the divorce petition. Differences emerged in the social context of the decision process, the criteria used, and the application of criteria to parents' particular circumstances. The findings are then organized into a framework that suggests a model for the process by which parents make their decision about custody.     

Disputed child custody: strategies and issues in mediation

Disputed child custody is a significant life stressor for both adults and children. Recent efforts have been made to develop a model for family mediation and subsequent clinical strategies that can attempt to address the stressors involved in divorce and perhaps resolve, through mediation, the posttrauma stress experienced by both spouses and children. Reviewed is the literature on the impact of separation and divorce on families and the use of family mediation to resolve disputes. It further addresses psychologic factors involved in the mediation process and the possible effects of mediation on divorce. An established family mediation model for treatment is presented in detail, as are clinical issues often addressed in the family mediation process. Issues and import for clinical application and research are offered.     

Global custody of endowment funds

This article explores the law relating to the global custodianship of funds, notably as managed for endowed charities such as universities and independent schools. Is global custody based on the legal concept of bailment or of trusts? Just how secure are the legal underpinnings of this financial mechanism? The conclusions are that the legal foundations to the concepts of custodianship, and especially on a global level with the appointment of sub-custodians, is surprisingly uncertain and confused in English Law, providing rather less reassurance to charity trustees concerning the security of the financial assets for which they are accountable than they might reasonably have expected.     

Involvement in extreme violence and violence‐related trauma: A review with relevance to young people in custody

Purpose. This review is concerned with the points of contact between two diverse literatures: first, the association between childhood abuse and the development of violent conduct; second, the effects of involvement in the perpetration of acts of violence. Method. The empirical literature in the two areas of concern is considered along with complementary explanations for the extant evidence. Results. There is a weight of evidence indicating that childhood abuse is associated with later violence alongside a literature that considers this association in terms of the traumatic effects of abuse. The perpetration of violent acts can have debilitating effects on the individual offender: these effects have also been considered in terms of trauma. Conclusion. It is suggested that there are potential advantages to adopting a trauma‐based framework to inform practice with violent young people. This suggestion raises several areas for research to inform the development of evidence‐based practice that are presented in outline form.     

A look from the inside: balancing custody and treatment in a juvenile maximum-security facility

This article is based on an ethnographic study of a cottage for violent offenders in one state's maximum-security training school. Staff members working in the cottage were the institution's front line in its attempts to hold the youth accountable for their crimes while also trying to resocialize and rehabilitate young men who were growing up with few conforming role models. As such, cottage staff members were put in the difficult position of juggling their roles as corrections officers, counselors, and surrogate parents. To effectively do their job, they had to find ways to balance the rhetoric of rehabilitation with the punitive reality of daily life in the institution. This article details the juvenile justice career paths of the staff members in the cottage and provides a sociological analysis of the roles, responsibilities, and interactions of the staff members with each other and with the young men in their care.     

The custody orientation of correctional officers: An international comparison

Correctional officers are the most numerous of staff in correctional institutions, and thus an important component in the functioning of the prison. Previous research has identified a subgroup of correctional officers who have been termed “custody oriented.” These officers value the security and supervison aspect of corrections work, and many times hold negative attitudes towards inmates. In order to ascertain the variables that may give rise to a custody orientation and to determine if these variables operate cross‐culturally, the attitudes of American (n = 229) and Canadian (n = 339) correctional officers were examined. The custody orientation of both groups was virtually identical, but the determinants of this custody orientation were quite different for the two groups of officers.     

Fathers and sons: some effects of prolonged custody litigation

In all jurisdictions, for a variety of reasons, child custody and visitation issues may be reopened at any time. The children at issue, already likely to have been traumatized by problems in the parental marriage and subsequent separation and divorce, are affected further by still more litigation. The cases of three preadolescent boys who are the subjects of such prolonged litigation are presented. In each, the boys resided with their mothers as the primary custodial parents, the fathers having generally liberal rights of visitation. Regardless of which parent raised further court-related issues after the original agreements, the father-son relationship was most severely affected by continuing legal actions and related parental actions. Each child became increasingly fearful of the next anticipated visit by the father, who was cast into the role of villain by the child. Efforts to improve these damaged relationships through joint parent-child therapeutic attempts were largely of little avail. In spite of what may have been good experience with the person of the judge who dealt with earlier litigation, the children became fearful of what the next might be like or might do, viewing the judge as the person in power to whom parents and attorneys alike deferred. It is suggested that, wherever possible, prolonged litigation be avoided in the best interests of the child and of preserving necessary child-parent relationships.     

Waiver of the psychotherapist-patient privilege: implications for child custody litigation

The psychotherapist-patient privilege, rooted in both common and statutory law, is predicated upon the public policy goal of protecting the reasonable expectation of privacy of individuals seeking psychotherapy. The privilege is not absolute, however. State and federal courts are far from uniform in determining how and when the privilege should be waived, in whole or in part, through implication, inadvertence or the affirmative action of the parties. In the family law context, the law that has evolved around the exercise of this privilege is even more complex as the needs of children add another wrinkle to the goal of balancing the imperative of confidentiality with the need for useful information that may be provided.     

Relitigation after contested custody and visitation evaluations

Relitigation of custody, visitation, and child support during a two-year period was used as a measure of postdivorce adjustment. A sample of highly adversarial families (n = 58) referred for a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation as part of a contested divorce custody or visitation action was compared to control samples of mother custody (n = 43), father custody (n = 30), and joint custody (n = 54) families in which custody was not contested. Nineteen percent of adversarial families evaluated predivorce relitigated custody, a significantly higher rate than control families. Mother custody cases had a higher rate of relitigation over child support than did father or joint custody arrangements. Joint custody controls had approximately the same rate of relitigation of custody as did father custody and mother custody controls. A sample of families referred for evaluation of a postdivorce custody or visitation dispute (n = 46) had a higher rate of relitigation of problems regarding visitation than did a control sample of postdivorce families (n = 36). Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.     

Fatal intoxication with 1,4-butanediol: Case report and comprehensive review of the literature

A fatal case of 1,4-butanediol (1,4-BD) oral ingestion is reported here, in which a 51-year-old man was found dead in his bed. According to the police report, the deceased was a known drug user. A glass bottle labeled (and later confirmed to be) “Butandiol 1,4” (1,4-BD) was found in the kitchen. Furthermore, the deceased's friend stated that he consumed 1,4-BD on a regular basis. The autopsy and histological examination of postmortem parenchymatous organ specimens did not revealed a clear cause of death. Chemical-toxicological investigations revealed gammahydroxybutyrat (GHB) in body fluids and tissues in the following quantities: femoral blood 390 mg/L, heart blood 420 mg/L, cerebrospinal fluid 420 mg/L, vitreous humor 640 mg/L, urine 1600 mg/L, and head hair 26.7 ng/mg. In addition, 1,4-BD was qualitatively detected in the head hair, urine, stomach contents, and the bottle. No other substances, including alcohol, were detected at pharmacologically relevant concentrations. 1,4-BD is known as precursor substance that is converted in vivo into GHB. In the synoptic assessment of toxicological findings, the police investigations and having excluded other causes of death, a lethal GHB-intoxication following ingestion of 1,4-BD, can be assumed in this case. Fatal intoxications with 1,4-BD have seldom been reported due to a very rapid conversion to GHB and, among other things, non-specific symptoms after ingestion. This case report aims to give an overview to the published of fatal 1,4-BD-intoxications and to discuss the problems associated with detection of 1,4-BD in (postmortem) specimens.