The forensic evaluations in child custody matters tend to be pivotal and may have a dramatic effect on the trajectory litigation and the ultimate form taken by a child's life after the judicial disposition. According to Goldstein (2015) , one of the primary ethical concerns in child custody evaluations regards inappropriate or incorrect procedures during the evaluation. Furthermore, the author posits that some parents tend to argue that the professionals who testify regarding the parents' evaluation may be biased and fail to follow the legal and ethical guidelines expected of them during the evaluation process (Goldstein, 2015) .
On the other hand, Pepiton et al. (2014) postulate that another ethical concern is the court's consideration of professions' opinions as evidentiary law. The author mentions that such opinions tend to raise ethical concerns because they usually exceed the various boundaries of the empirical knowledgebase of the professionals (Pepiton et al., 2014) . Furthermore, the opinions raise ethical concerns because they tend to misrepresent the set limits of the knowledge base of the professionals consulted by the court during the child custody decision making processes (Pepiton et al., 2014) . Therefore, when the professionals' opinions are presented to the court, they have scientific merit. The reality is that such opinions lack reasonable scientific backing, which becomes an ethical issue.
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Oberlander (2010) argues that it is unethical for the mental health professionals and witnesses to tender particular custody recommendations to the court. Furthermore, the author states that the admission of such recommendations at trial should be considered to violate the fundamental evidentiary doctrine (Oberlander, 2010) . Moreover, the parents may also challenge the competence of the professionals that evaluated them. Competence is one of the ethical issues considered by professionals, which is why the court is usually compelled to appoint qualified and skilled professionals for the evaluation of the parents in need of child custody (Oberlander, 2010) .
References
Goldstein, M. (2015). Ethical Issues in Child Custody Evaluations. Handbook Of Child Custody , 3-9. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13942-5_1
Oberlander, L. (2010). Ethical Responsibilities in Child Custody Evaluations: Implications for Evaluation Methodology. Ethics & Behavior , 5 (4), 311-332. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327019eb0504_2
Pepiton, M., Zelgowski, B., Geffner, R., & Pegolo de Albuquerque, P. (2014). Ethical Violations: What Can and Does Go Wrong in Child Custody Evaluations?. Journal Of Child Custody , 11 (2), 81-100. https://doi.org/10.1080/15379418.2014.920245
