Home      Login

Abstract: 

“’Mistakes’ Are Made: The Problems with Custody Evaluators” is a first-person, research-grounded critique of how child custody evaluations can function as a decisive—and dangerously distorted—engine of injustice in contested cases involving domestic violence (DV), coercive control, and child abuse. The author, a psychologist and DV survivor, recounts entering family court with documented abuse findings and an expectation of protection, only to discover a system that routinely converts safety-driven allegations into narratives of maternal pathology and “high conflict.” Central to the article is the evaluator’s outsized influence, coupled with frequent DV illiteracy, confirmation bias, and reliance on psychological instruments (notably the MMPI) that do not validly assess parenting capacity or predict child safety outcomes. The article explains how abusers’ manipulation strategies (including DARVO) and the court’s readiness to credit alienation claims can eclipse corroborated abuse evidence, placing mothers in an impossible “damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t” dilemma. A tragic case study illustrates how cumulative trauma, legal abuse, and evaluator-driven outcomes can destabilize survivors. The article closes with the author’s turn from victimization to collective action—building the Battered Mothers Custody Conference and supporting reform efforts—while underscoring that, even in 2026, the same patterns persist nationwide.

Keywords: Battered Mothers Custody Conference; MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory); child custody evaluators; Parental Alienation Syndrome; “high conflict” divorce

Affiliations:  1: Sienna University.