Real-Life Decision Making
You are a forensic psychologist with a private practice. As a trained psychologist,
you apply your knowledge to the criminal justice system. You work with police,
lawyers and prosecutors on a number of different types of cases.
For example, the police may ask you to create a psychological profile of
an offender. This only happens after more serious crimes such as murder.
At other times, you are called upon to provide expert testimony on a defendant's
mental state. This commonly happens when the judge has to decide whether the
accused person is mentally fit to stand trial, or if someone is pleading that
they were not guilty by reason of insanity. Before you can testify in court,
you will need to interview the defendant and perform psychological tests.
However, the bulk of your time is spent on child custody cases. In these
cases, your testimony helps the judge decide what type of custody arrangement
would be best for the child.
One day, you open your mail to discover a check for $2,200. The check is
from a lawyer for whom you have worked in the past. However, the check is
not for payment for services you have already performed. Instead, the lawyer
wants you to testify in an upcoming child custody case. His client is a mother
suing to obtain sole legal and physical custody of her children.
You agree to meet with the lawyer and his client. At the meeting, you soon
realize that the mother has no good reason for keeping the children away from
their father. True, it was a bitter divorce, and the father can be uncooperative.
But all the evidence points to his being a fine parent.
You believe that the best option for the children would be some sort of
co-parenting arrangement. However, the mother intends to continue battling
for sole custody for as long as her money holds out.
"When you deal with people in distress and attorneys who desperately want
to 'win' their case, ethical issues constantly arise," says forensic
psychologist Len Diamond. "In my work, ethical decisions have to be made daily."
The situation is clear. The lawyer will pay you $2,200 to testify in court
that it is in the children's best interest to award sole custody to the
mother.
If you refuse to do what he wants, he'll simply find another forensic
psychologist with fewer scruples. On the other hand, if you go along with
the charade, you're helping to separate the children from their father
for no good reason.
What do you do?