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Write a Forensic Report Step by Step [Examples Inside]

how to write a forensic court report

To present the evidence in a way the court deems admissible and bring the guilty to justice, formulating a coherent and comprehensive digital forensics report is crucial. Without one, retelling the events that occurred in a structured manner, all while backing up every claim with concrete evidence, would be next to impossible (hence they are a requirement in the court proceedings).

Digital forensics reports play an instrumental role in coordinating the work between multiple investigators, law enforcement officers, administrative, and legal personnel involved in the case, not all of which may share the same professional background and field of expertise.

They are the interdisciplinary focal point that tells the truth of what happened and documents the findings, all while presenting them in a factual yet understandable manner.

At the same time, investigators should keep in mind that other law enforcement institutions may ask for the report in order to:

  • Get a recap of events
  • Determine the next steps to take
  • Review the evidence
  • Verify what digital forensics tools have been used
  • Get an overview of the investigation’s objectives

Before we reveal the exact steps on how to formulate one, keep in mind that the exact structure of a digital forensic report depends on the case, which means what you will find below is a general overview of the entire process in a step-by-step manner as well as a general outline to follow which should give you some ideas on how to tackle the task at hand.

To give you a better idea how the final result should look, we’ve also provided some concrete digital forensic report examples from different cases.

With that out of the way, let’s begin with :

STEP 1: Familiarize Yourself with the Best Practices of Writing a Digital Forensic Report

Step 2: study some generic and recommended forensic report examples before writing, step 3: write the digital forensics report, step 4: re-check your report for factual correctness and apply edits as needed, step 5: present the report to the court, digital forensic lab can help you automate your reporting.

Magnfying glass

Before you begin with the writing process, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the most important principles to keep in mind the entire time.

These can be summarized as follows:

Don’t break the law when collecting, processing, analyzing, or handling evidence

No law enforcement officer or digital forensics investigator is above the law, so everyone’s rights need to be respected during the entirety of the investigation. The forensic report you present needs to make this clear beyond any doubt, so you should state any warrants you’ve obtained to search and confiscate a device, etc.

Only mention the information that’s relevant

Just think of it like telling a story. If it fails to captivate the reader’s attention, there is a risk the reader will put it down before getting to the end.

The purpose of a digital forensics report is to help the reader connect the dots and lead them on a journey of discovery.

Focus on concrete facts rather than your personal opinions

When trying to get someone to answer for their deeds and convict them in court, you’re going to need more than just a subjective opinion, so focus on stating concrete evidence and facts.

Remember that anyone can argue with someone’s opinion, but facts are indisputable.

Utilize any forensics notes you’ve made during the investigation itself

Did your work begin with suspicion or a clue you started investigating? This can add value and enrich the section where you talk about the stages of the investigation and how you came to your conclusions.

If a particular part of the digital forensics process was especially challenging, shed some light on why that was the case and how you managed to overcome these challenges.

Avoid using complex terms and focus on conveying the relevant information in a manner that is coherent and simple to understand

The reason being is that not everyone who will read the report has the same professional background as you.

During the investigation and legal proceedings, expect to be working with IT professionals, legal professionals, and law enforcement personnel who all need to be kept on the same page. Of course, you shouldn’t strip out all of the industry terms such as IP addresses, timestamps, hash values, and similar, all of which can be crucial pieces of evidence.

However, when mentioning these, you should include a glossary at the end where others can read up on the exact definitions of the technical terms.

Automate the process if you can

If you stick to the end, we’ll show you how.

To give you a quick spoiler: there are certain dedicated digital forensics solutions such as SalvationDATA’s Digital Forensic Lab that take out the heavy lifting of having to write a digital forensics report on your own, with a built-in chain of custody compliance, timestamps, etc.

Forensic Report

Studying a computer forensic evidence report example written by others will not only get your creative juices flowing, let you in on some ideas about what to include in your report, but give you a good overall image of what the finalized version is supposed to look like.

Below, please find our digital forensic report template list consisting of top-performing industry examples.

  • A shorter report outlining the case of document manipulation (by Cybersleuthlab)
  • A detailed digital forensics report featuring tables, exhibits, figures, etc.
  • A report explaining video footage with timestamps

Typing

Now comes the most important step of all – actually writing the digital forensics report .

Since you’re now familiar with the best practices of how to approach the task, we can move on to the exact structural specifics of it.

Please include the name of the case, the investigator in charge, and the relevant dates.

b) Table of contents

Just like a book, your digital forensic report should list out every section and map out the corresponding page of the chapter.

If you’re using a popular text editor like Microsoft Word, this section can be auto-generated.

c) Case summary

This section should provide a general overview of the case.

Do not include too many details and try to avoid technical jargon if possible.

d) Evidence

The summary of the evidence submitted comes first. After that, you should list one after another and include screenshots if needed, besides, make sure to provide an explanation for each.

In this section, it’s fine to list any relevant hardware specifics such as the model name, serial numbers, etc.

e) Objectives

In essence, the objectives section should attempt to answer the question of what you’re trying to prove.

That being said, what was the objective of the investigation?

Don’t forget to include your hypothesis and any relevant search terms.

f) Steps taken during an investigation (aka. Forensic Analysis).

This section should outline the steps taken during the investigation, including the digital forensics methodology used and any interactable parts of the process.

You should also consider including additional explanations that extrapolate the process and give valuable insights into how crucial conclusions were made.

For the sake of readability and maintaining the chain of custody , you should also provide a timeline of events that specifies who handled the evidence, for how long, and for what purpose.

g) Tools used

What digital forensic tools did you rely on during the digital forensics investigation ? Outline them briefly and explain what purpose each of them served, including any limitations of said tools.

Attaching screenshots of the process and describing it can help make it sound clearer and more understandable to follow even for non-industry professionals involved in the case and/or legal procedure.

h) Relevant findings

Re-iterate the most important conclusions here and don’t be afraid to go into as many details as you see fit. Anything you state here should be directly related to the main objectives of the digital forensics investigation .

This is where you explain each piece of evidence and clearly pinpoint what it proves in a way that even non-industry professionals can understand.

i) Recommended next steps

This section should be short (no longer than a paragraph).

In it, suggest what the council can do with these findings and how to go from here.

Should criminal charges be filed?

j) Appendices (optional)

Not required, but it can make or break a case sometimes.

This is where you’ll be presenting your exhibit A, exhibit B, etc. You should present them in a PDF format that can be easily opened anywhere all while retaining its intended formatting.

Make sure that any hyperlinks it contains are clickable and that they link to relevant resources.

k) Formatting (optional)

This is mainly for the sake of the document having a professional appearance.

Having each page marked with a number also makes it easy to detect if someone tried to tamper with the report by removing a page (or if one of them accidentally goes missing).

Make sure the logo of your law enforcement organization is clearly visible in the header and footer of each page, as well as the corresponding address and the person in charge.

l) Figures (optional)

Your digital forensics report will likely contain various figures scattered throughout the document.

It’s nice to have a dedicated page where all of these can be reviewed in the same place.

Make sure there is a description alongside every figure stated.

m) Glossary (optional)

At some point when writing the report, there will be no other way than to mention some technical or industry-specific terms, although the best practice is to avoid them in general or at least keep them to a minimum.

Including a glossary at the end of the document will help non-industry professionals understand the complex terms mentioned in the report.

Make sure to include only those that you actually referenced during writing.

Checklist

This is the part where you should re-check that everything is in order, and factually correct and that you haven’t forgotten to include anything (please refer to the sections above if you need further guidance).

As you refine the final version of the document, you should ask yourself:

  • Do the numbers check out?
  • Does the report list all crucial pieces of evidence and the people in charge?
  • Is it brief and to the point or do you feel like you could trim out some irrelevant parts?
  • Is it based on facts? If you catch yourself writing ‘I believe X’, perhaps it’s better to word it as ‘the evidence suggests that X happened because of Y’.
  • Could certain sections be explained using layman’s terms instead of using complicated jargon?

Once everything checks out and you feel no further improvements can be made, you’re good to proceed to the final step!

Rostrum

Once you’ve double-checked everything, you can confidently present the report to the court.

If you’d like more detailed guidance, we’ve written a comprehensive guide on what steps are required to present evidence in court .

For your quick glance, please find a brief summary below:

  • Secure the evidence.
  • Make sure to maintain the chain of custody.
  • Verify that the evidence is authentic.
  • Sort the evidence according to its relevance.
  • Convert the files into the right format.
  • Get acquainted with the presentation procedure.
  • Label the exhibits.
  • Complete the final preparations.

It is our hope that the steps outlined above will take the hassle out of the equation and give you a solid idea of what the court expects to see.

Make sure to also familiarize yourself with the dos and don’ts of presenting evidence in court so that it will deem it admissible.

Most law enforcement professionals would agree that writing a digital forensics report is not the most productive part of the overall investigation. As necessary as it may be, it consumes a lot of man-hours that could be better spent analyzing evidence and taking a proactive role in the investigation.

To provide an alternative and do away with mindless manual labor, SalvationDATA has come up with a Digital Forensic Lab , a cutting-edge one-stop technological solution designed to streamline your digital forensics workflow and fully automate the reporting.

Thanks to its powerful architecture, evidence visualization, and built-in reporting, you will be able to close more cases in (even in advance )record time, thus adding to the credibility and recognition of your department, all while effortlessly maintaining the chain of custody and staying compliant with other industry requirements.

In the end, due to giving you such massive time and money savings, investments like these virtually pay for themselves.

Workflow-in-SalvationDATA-Digital-Lab2

Digital Forensic Lab completely automates the process of generating a forensic report.

At the end of the day, a digital forensics report is meant to facilitate communication between different industry experts that are involved in the case in one way or another. Some may have a background in IT, some are legal professionals, and some are officers of the law doing the fieldwork of collecting and securing crucial evidence.

With this in mind, the report doesn’t need to be perfect, nor does it need to include every single detail regarding the investigation. As long as you focus on the most important elements, use clear and concise language everyone can understand, as well as stick to the best practices we’ve outlined above, you should have a firm starting point on how to proceed.

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CIVIL AND MISDEMEANORS

How to write a forensic report.

By Melissa McCall

January 13, 2019

Reviewed by Michelle Seidel, B.Sc., LL.B., MBA

Learn About Our Review Process

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how to write a forensic court report

  • Reasons a Restraining Order May be Denied

Forensics is the application of science to criminal investigations. Forensics can include a wide array of sciences from physics to psychics. A forensic report simply and succinctly summarizes the substantive evidence in a criminal case. Forensic report writing may prove difficult and daunting because it usually demands analyses of technical data, presented in a readable, easy-to-follow format. Nevertheless, a forensic report essentially follows the same basic standards and protocols required of any report.

Identify the Data and the Events

Gather all relevant details, both about the subject of your report and about the events leading up to the conclusion of your investigation. Identify all legal representatives and all sources from whom you gathered relevant forensic evidence. Most importantly, be prepared to note the scientific basis upon which you are qualified to give the report.

Begin writing the report, identifying the parties involved, including names, dates of birth and genders; specific dates; locations; alleged offenses; and the causative chain of events. Accurately describe all details of what allegedly transpired.

Structure of Psychological Evaluation

In the case of a psychological opinion – which should be provided by a licensed clinician – the clinician should be prepared to give her clinical impressions. Clinicians should be able to describe their opinion of the defendant, inferring the condition of his mental or cognitive state, and document their conclusion.

At a bare minimum, such a report should include:

  • Description of defendant’s psychological disposition based on the clinician’s professional observation. Include any personal interviews with defendant and documents reviewed.
  • Contact defendant’s attorneys to help assess the defendant's perceptions before, during and after the alleged incident.
  • Provide relevant information about the defendant's psychiatric/psychological history, including relevant details about any substance abuse or involvement with the criminal justice system.

Defendant’s Current Circumstances

If possible, document the defendant's current living circumstances, where do they live and why. Describe any relationships the defendant may have had with the alleged victim and anything within the defendant’s current circumstances that may have precipitated the alleged incident.

Defendant’s Mental Status

Specifically state any positive and/or negative findings regarding the defendant's mental status that can be backed up. Include direct quotes and objective assessments, such as manifestations of suicidal or homicidal tendencies or anything suggesting psychosis. If necessary information is unavailable, document why it is not included.

Mental Competence

Provide concrete examples to demonstrate the defendant's mental abilities and deficiencies. The clinician should extrapolate from previously annotated observations to assess the defendant's mental competence. However, the clinician’s strongest basis for assessing the defendant is his own observations of the defendant. The clinician should have spent enough time observing the defendant to present solid evidence of the defendant’s competence.

  • Exclude from the record any self-incriminating statements made by the defendant regarding the alleged offense; such assertions are inadmissible in determining legal competence.
  • Provide data that identifies the presence or absence of mental illness during and/or before the alleged incident to assess criminal responsibility. Include any other potential extenuating and/or incriminating factors necessary for the court to determine criminal culpability.

Conclusion and Disposition

A forensic report is incomplete without conclusions and recommendations. The clinician’s previous data must support the conclusions. In the recommendation, the clinician should include all opinions concerning mental competency. Harness the evidence to substantiate your professional opinion.

After the court reaches a disposition in the defendant's case, document the outcome of the case whenever possible. If information that would lead to a different recommendation becomes available after the completion of your report, submit an addendum explaining the reason for the change.

  • SANS Institute: Becoming a Forensics Investigator
  • All-About-Forensic-Science.com: A Free and Comprehensive Guide to the World of Forensic Science
  • What Is Forensic Science?
  • techFAQ: "What is Forensic Science?"
  • American Academy of Forensic Sciences: "So You Want to Be a Forensic Scientist"
  • FBI DNA Laboratory: "A Review of Protocol and Practice Vulnerabilities"
  • Keep it simple. Stay terse and to the point in your descriptions.
  • Present your evaluation in a readable, unambiguous prose style with easily accessible references.
  • Keep copies of any addenda with your original report.

Melissa McCall is an accomplished lawyer, science journalist and legal analyst. She graduated cum laude from Syracuse University in 2003 and spent two years as a Judicial Law Clerk, followed by 2 years at a general litigation firm and a brief stint as the Director of Environmental Protection for the Virgin Islands. Since leaving the US Virgin Islands, she has worked as a legal recruiter, legal writer and legal analyst.

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how to write a forensic court report

The Neutral Corner: Understanding a Digital Forensics Report

Daniel Garrie   Senior Partner & Co-Founder / Law & Forensics

15 Aug 2016 · 6 minute read

It is vital for lawyers to understand what digital evidence is, how forensic neutrals work, and what to look for when reviewing a forensics report

As technology rapidly advances, it is becoming more and more difficult to find the hidden truths contained in digital footprints. While this is often not a problem for most people, attorneys in recent years have begun to run into substantial problems in dealing with the complexities of modern digital evidence, namely an inability to know what to look for, and how to get it. These difficulties have led to the rise of forensic experts and other impartial “neutrals” that can assist lawyers in dealing with the intricacies of digital evidence.

In this blog post, I will examine what digital evidence is, how forensic neutrals work, and conclude with a few key points for the reader to consider when reviewing a forensic report.

Digital evidence refers to any type of evidence that is found on a computer, audio file, video recording, or digital image. Importantly, this includes data that may be hidden, erased, or otherwise altered, and requires forensic analysis in order to determine its content. This is a rather expansive definition, but it is the correct definition because there are at least traces of digital evidence wherever one may look. As a result, a natural question arises as to where one should look for useful evidence. There are, of course, the usual suspects: computers, phones, email accounts, local storage and cloud storage solutions, but these alone are no longer sufficient. With the rise of the Internet of Things, computers can be found almost anywhere, including, for example, a car’s black box, a fitness monitor that can track anything from the wearer’s GPS location to their heart rate, and even refrigerators that can actively monitor their own contents.

As a result of this superfluous quantity of data, it is important to seek the aid of a forensic neutral early in a case, as they can effectively cut through the surplus data, and help the parties find the most probative, and potentially dispositive, data.

As discussed briefly above, the rise of cloud computing and storage has led to new issues associated with collecting and analyzing digital evidence that is not controlled locally. While the cloud is undoubtedly a tool of great convenience, it can make the collection and analysis of data an incredibly difficult — even near impossible — task. Moreover, even if a forensic technician is physically and technologically able to collect and analyze the data, there may be other issues, such as extra-territorial disputes that force US laws into conflict with a myriad of foreign laws regarding data protection and privacy. In cases such as these, a forensic neutral can be instrumental in expeditiously resolving these cloud-centric disputes.

The rise of cloud computing and storage has led to new issues associated with collecting and analyzing digital evidence that is not controlled locally.

The next issue to tackle is how, once appointed, a forensic neutral performs his work. Any forensic neutral must begin his process by carefully documenting all sources of data that the parties may provide (usually called “repositories”), and creating a detailed chain of custody. The laws of evidence rightfully require these strict measures, which mean that before beginning his analysis, a forensic neutral must ensure that everything is properly documented and accounted for. The forensic neutral must then create an identical copy of whatever repository he will analyze to ensure the original data is not lost or modified. There are a variety of tools that can be employed to create a duplicate, but once an exact copy is created, verified and validated, the forensic neutral finally may begin his analysis.

After the analysis is complete, a forensic neutral will compile a report that outlines both his process and his findings. One of the key elements of any good forensic report is that another neutral, given the same repositories, should be able to follow the report, step-by-step, and achieve the same results. It is important to note that a proper forensic report is not a legal document —  it is a technical and scientific document. It does not contain arguments; it contains facts, namely the immutable truths found within the 1s and 0s of digital evidence.

Let’s look at a sample way a forensic report may be organized:

forensics

With respect to the quantity and quality of data contained in a forensic report, one should look to see whether the information included is superfluous or necessary. If a neutral wants to “beef up” a report with a substantial quantity of unnecessary information, it is not a hard task to do, but it often means that there was likely little useful content contained in the report. With respect to qualifications on the neutral’s findings, a good report will contain the following qualifications:

  • limitations of the particular tool(s) used;
  • applicability of the current technology and industry-standard best practices;
  • methodology or techniques such as search criteria or formulae; and
  • the scope of the investigation.

No report will ever be perfect, but a good report will identify the areas that might be a potential concern, highlighting the issues, and their implications for counsel and the court.

In sum, as data becomes more complex and more difficult to collect and analyze, courts and attorneys will increasingly turn to forensic neutrals to help find the truths contained within the parties’ digital footprints.

In upcoming blog posts, I will discuss how neutrals can assist on issues of electronic discovery and computer forensics to save clients time and money.

The thoughts expressed herein are solely those of the author, and not those of JAMS, Law & Forensics, the Journal of Law and Cyber Warfare, or Cardozo Law School. The author would like to thank Masha Simonova and Benjamin Dynkin as contributors.

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Write a Forensic Report Step by Step [Examples Inside]

how to write a forensic court report

To present the evidence is a way the court deems admissible and brought the guilty to justice, formulating a logical and comprehensive digital forensics report is crucial. Lacking one, retelling the events that occurred in a methodical manner, all while backing up every claim with concrete detection, would be move to impossible (hence they are a requirement in the courts proceedings).

Analog forensics books play an instrumental role in coordinating the work between multiple investigators, law enforcement officers, administrative, and legal personnel involved in the kasus, not all from which can share which same professional zusammenhang and field of expertise.

She are the interdisciplinary focal point that tells the truth a what happened and documents the findings, choose while presenting them includes a factual yet understandable manner.

Along that same time, inspectors should keep in ghost that other law enforcement institutions may ask for the report in order to:

  • Gain adenine recap of events
  • Determine aforementioned next stair on take
  • Review the evidence
  • Verify about numerical forensics tools hold been used
  • Get an overview of the investigation’s objectives

Before we reveal the exact steps on how in formulate one, keep in mind that the rigorous structure to a digital forensic report depends on the case, whatever means what you will finding below is a general overview of the completely process in a step-by-step manner as well as an general contour till follow which should give you many ideas on how to tackle the task under hand. Write a Legal Report Step by Steps [Examples Inside] - Salvation DATA

To give you one better idea like the final result should look, we’ve also provided several concrete digital foresic write examples from different cases.

With this get of the way, let’s begin with :

  • LEVEL 1: Familiarize yourself with the best practices of how a digital forensic reports
  • STEP 2: How some global and recommended technical report instances previously how

STEP 3: Write the digital forensics report

  • STEP 4: Re-check your report for factitious correctness and apply edits as needed
  • STEP 5: Present the report to one court
  • Digital Forensic Lab can help you program your reporting
  • STEP 1: Familiarize yourself with the best practices to writing one digital forensic report
  • STEP 2: Studies some generic and recommend forensic view instance forward writing
  • STEP 3: Write of digital forensics report
  • MOVE 4: Re-check your report for factual correctness and apply edits as required
  • STEP 5: Present the how to and court
  • Digital Forensic Lab can help you automates your reporting

STEPPING 1: Familiarize yourself with the better practices of writing adenine digital forensic report

Magnfying glass

Before you commence with the writing process, it’s a goody think until adapt yourself with which most important principles to keep in mind the ganzheit time. Numerical Cyber Analysis Report

These can be summarized as follows:

Don’t break the law when collecting, processing, analyzing, or how evidence

No law enforcement officer or digital forensics investigator is above the law, so everyone’s entitled must at be respected during who whole of the analysis. The create you present needs to make here clear beyond any doubt, so you shoud state any trading you’ve obtained to scan additionally confiscate one device, etc.

Only mention the information that’s relevant

Just think from thereto like telling a story. If it failure to captivate the reader’s attention, there is a chance the reading will put it down before getting to the ends. Forensic Bacteriology Search, 261. Common Methods starting Sample and Data Collector, 263. Drawing furthermore Recommendation, 265. This document is one research report ...

The purpose of a digital forensics news is to help the reader connect the dots and lead them on a journey a rediscover.

Focus on concrete data rather than your personal user

When trying to get someone toward answer for their deeds the convict them in court, you’re going to need more than just a subjective opinion, therefore focus for stating concrete find and facts.

Recall that anyone can argue with someone’s opinion, but evidence are indisputable.

Utilize any forensics notes you’ve made during the test itself

Did your work begin with suspicion instead an pointer thou started investigating? This can add value and enrich the section where you talk via one stages of the investigation and how you came into your conclusions.

If a particular part of this digital forensics process was especially challenging, shed some light on why that been which case and like you managed to overcomes these trouble.

Avoid using complex terms and focus on haul the relevant info in a manner that your coherent and simple to understand

The reason being is that not everyone who will read to report has the same specialist background as you.

Through the investigation and legal proceedings, expect up be working with IT professionals, legal professionals, and law enforcements personnel who sum need to be kept on this equal page. Is training, you shouldn’t strip out all of the industry terms such as IP browse, timestamps, hash values, and similar, all of which can be crucial pieces of evidence. Forensic Science - Evidence Submission

However, when mentioning these, yours should include a glossary at the end where others can read up on the exact definitions of the special terms.

Automatically the process if you can

If you stick to aforementioned end, we’ll show yourself how.

To give you a quick spoiler: there can certain dedicated digital forensics solutions that as SalvationDATA’s Digital Forensic Lab that take out the large lifting of having to write a digital forensics report on your own, with a built-in chaining starting custody product, timestamps, et.

STEP 2: Study some generic and recommended forensic report examples before writing

Forensic Report

Studying a computer forensic evidence report example written by others will don only receive to creative juices flowing, rent you in on some ideas about what to contains in your report, but give her ampere goal overall image of what the finalized versions is supposed up look same. Fore Science to Criminal Courts: Providing Scientific Validity of ...

Below, please seek our digital judiciary report template directory consisting of top-performing industry examples.

  • A shortage news outlining the case of document manipulation (by Cybersleuthlab)
  • A detailed full forensics report highlighting tables, exhibits, figures, etc.
  • A report explaining film footage with timestamps

Typewriting

Now comes the most importantly step of all – actually writing the digital forensics news.

Since you’re now familiar with the best practices out how until get the assignment, are can motion on to the exact structural feature for information.

Please include the name starting the case, an investigator in charge, and the relevant dates.

b) Tabular of contents

Just like a buy, your digital forensic report should print out every section and map out the entsprechendem page of the chapter.

If you’re using a popular text editor like Microsoft Word, to section can be auto-generated.

c) Lawsuit summary

This section should provide a overall overview away the case.

Do not include too many details and try to avoided technical language whenever possible.

d) Evidence

The summary of the finding submitted comes first. After the, you should list one-time after one also include screenshots if needed, besides, make save to provide einem explanation for each.

In this section, it’s fine to list any relevant hardware specifics such as the model name, serial figure, ect.

e) Objectives

In element, the objectives section should attempt to rejoin one question of thing you’re trying to proof.

That being said, what was the objective of the exam?

Don’t forget up include is proof and any really search terms.

f) Steps taken during to investigation (aka. Forensic Analysis).

This view have outline the steps taken during the investigation, including to digital forensics methodology used and any interactable spare of the process.

You shall also consider including additional explanations that extrapolate the process the give valuable insights into methods crucial conclusions were made.

For the sake of readability additionally maintaining aforementioned chain of custody , you should see provide a timeframe of events that specifies who handled the evidence, for how long, and for what main.

g) Tools used

Thing digital forensic tools did you rely on for to numeral forensics investigation? Frame themselves briefly and explain what usage each of them served, including any limitations of stated tools.

Attaching screenshots of the treat also describing a can online make it sound clearer and show understandable to follow even to non-industry specialist participants in one case and/or legal procedure.

h) Relevance findings

Re-iterate the most important ending her the don’t be afraid to geht into as many details as you see fit. Every you state here should be directly related to to mains objectives of the digital forensics investigate .

This is find you explaining respectively piece of exhibits and clearly needle what it proves in a way that even non-industry professionals can understand.

i) Recommended next steps

This section should be short (no longer than a paragraph).

In it, suggest what the commission can do with these findings and how to go from here.

Should criminal charges be filed?

j) Appendices (optional)

Not required, but it could make or break a case sometimes.

This is show you’ll being presenting your exhibit A, exhibit BORON, etc. You must present them on ampere PDF format that can be easily already anywhere all while keeping its intended formatting.

Making sure that any hyperlinks i contains are clickable and that they unite to relevant resources.

k) Formatting (optional)

Save is mainly for the sake is the document having a professional appearance.

Having each page obvious equal an number also does it uncomplicated to detect if someone tried till meddle is the how by removing a side (or if one of them accidentally goes missing). a forensic report is meant at facilitate communication between different industry geniuses that are involved in which lawsuit in one way or another

Make sure the logo of your law enforcement organization is clearly visible in the headers and footer of each page, as fountain as the corresponding address real the individual in charge.

l) Figures (optional)

Your digital forensics reporting will likely contain various figures scattered throughout the document.

It’s nice to have a dedicated page where all of these can be reviewed the the equal put.

Make sure there is adenine description alongside every figure told.

m) Glossary (optional)

At some point when writing the report, where will be no other mode than to please several expert or industry-specific key, although the better practice is to avoid them in general or at worst keep them to a minimum. Fortifying Forensic Science in the Uniting Nations: A Path Share

Including a glossary at the end of the document will help non-industry professionals understand the complex footing listed in the message.

Construct sure go include only such that you actually referenced during writing.

TREAD 4: Re-check your report fork factual correctness and apply editors as needed

Checklist

Like is aforementioned part where your should re-check that everything is in decree, and factually correct and that your haven’t forgotten to include anything (please references to the sections above if you need further guidance). Forensic science remains adenine critical element off to criminal justice system-. Forensic scientists examine and study evidence of crime environments and elsewhere to ...

As you refine one final version away the document, you ought ask yourselves:

  • What the numbers checking exit?
  • Does the report list all crucial pieces of evidence and the people in charge?
  • Is it brief and to the point or doing you feel like you could trim out some irrelevant parts?
  • Is it supported set facts? Is you catch yourself writing ‘I believe X’, perhaps it’s better to word is as ‘the evidence advises that X happened cause von Y’. SEX FELONY: Detective C. CRIMINOLOGISTS: DATE OF REPORT: HISTORY. Homicide XXXX requested DNA testing on evidence for comparison against ...
  • Couldn certain sections be explaining using layman’s terms instead of using hard jargon?

Once everything checks out and you think no other bug can subsist made, you’re good to proceed to of finishing step!

STEP 5: Presence the report into the court

Rostrum

Time you’ve double-checked everything, you ability confidently present the report to the court.

If you’d likes more detailed guidance, we’ve written a extensive guide on what steps have required to present evidence include yard .

For yours quick quick, please seek a short summary beneath:

  • Secure the proof.
  • Make sure to maintain the belt of security.
  • Verify that aforementioned evidence is authentic.
  • Sort the evidence according to its meaning.
  • Modify the files into the right format.
  • Get aware with the presentation procedure.
  • Label the exhibits.
  • Completed the final provision.

It is our aspiration that the steps outlined above will take the hassle out out the equation and give you a solid idea of what the court expects to see.

Make sure to also train yourself with the dos plus don’ts of presenting evidence in judge as is e will deem it admissible.

Digitally Criminal Dental can help yourself automate your reporting

Maximum lawyer enforcement professionals would agree that writing one full forensics report is not the most productive part out the overall exploration. As necessary as information may be, it consumes a lot of man-hours is could are better spent analyzing evidence and taking a proactive play in the investigation.

To make an alternative and do away with mindless manual labor, SalvationDATA has come up including a Direct Forensic Lab , adenine cutting-edge one-stop technological solution designed to streamline your digital forensics workflow and fully automate the reporting.

Thanks to its influential architecture, evidence visualization, and built-in reporting, him will be able to close more cases is (even in advance )record time, thus adding to of probability and recognition of your specialty, all while easygoing maintaining the chain of protective and stop compliant with diverse industry requirements.

In the end, due the giving you such massive time and funds savings, investments like these virtually pay available themselves.

Workflow-in-SalvationDATA-Digital-Lab2

Digital Technical Lab completely automates the process of generating a forensic report.

At the end of the daytime, a digital forensics report is meant to further announcement between different industry experts that are involved in the case in one way or another. Some may have a background into IT, couple are legal professionals, and some are officers of the law doing of fieldwork of getting and securing crucial evidence. We are pleased to send you this PCAST report on Forensic Science in ... 5.1 DNA Analysis of Single-source and Simple-mixture patterns .

With get in mind, aforementioned report doesn’t need on be perfect, nor does it need to comprise jede single detail regarding the investigation. As long as you focus on the of major elements, use clear and conciseness language everyone can understand, as well as stick to the best practices we’ve shown higher, yourself should can ampere firmly launch point on what to proceed.

Relatives posts

What is digital forensics, the best digital forensic companies 2023, the top 20 open source differential forensic tools on 2023, working with video evidence: 8 problems in law enforcement, handling digital proof – the chain of safety in numeral forensics, 18 areas of computer forensics services in a seafood, what is database forensics, how at selected up a digital forensic lab (7 steps to approach), get is drone forensics, 15 industry-leading engineering digital forensics methods and technologies, professional solutions, digital forensic lab, video investigation portable 2.0, smartphone forensic system professional, recent posts, what does one forensic video analyst do in law enforcement, revolutionizing numerical forensic investigations with salvationdata’s integrated digital fore lab solution, tagging crooks and keeping tabs: one power of motion capture with video investigation, contribute to their newsletter.

how to write a forensic court report

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The Oxford Handbook of Psychology and Law

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The Oxford Handbook of Psychology and Law

8 Forensic Report Writing: Proposing a Research Agenda

Richart L. DeMier, Independent Practice

Daniel A. Krauss, Claremont McKenna College

  • Published: 23 February 2023
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Most guidance for forensic report writing lacks empirical support. Current recommendations have largely been derived from ethical principles, the professional literature, and, in some cases, personal experiences. This chapter briefly reviews these existing recommendations, their rationales, and, when it exists, their scientific foundations. Practical and stylistic considerations are discussed, from language choice to issues such as relevance of data and how to frame diagnoses. The chapter proposes a research agenda to investigate whether existing guidance can be empirically supported. Broad research questions are proposed to stimulate thought about additional empirical work, and some initial ideas about how to approach specific hypotheses are considered. In particular, researchers need to further investigate ways to fashion reports that legal actors and other consumers of the information will read, understand, and use appropriately.

Psychologists pride themselves on being empiricists. Whether or not their graduate schools explicitly adopted the scientist–practitioner model, they learned the scientific method, and they were socialized to value research. They were trained that assessment methods must be valid and reliable ( American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education, 2014 ) and that treatments should be empirically supported ( Chambless & Hollon, 1998 ). Despite the value placed on empiricism, however, there are contexts in forensic psychology where it is lacking, and the clearest example may be forensic report writing.

This is unfortunate, given that preparation of reports is ubiquitous among forensic psychologists, and those reports may be the most important work products they generate. Attorneys, judges, insurance companies, police commissions, regulatory boards, and others benefit from thorough and well-reasoned forensic reports that address specific psychological questions related to contested issues. More forensic cases are completed on the basis of a written report than on the basis of expert testimony at a deposition, hearing, or trial ( Melton et al., 2018 ). It is somewhat surprising, then, that so little empirical research has focused on written forensic reports as compared to other topics, such as expert testimony. This may be an artifact of the ease with which expert testimony (or mock expert testimony) can be empirically evaluated, and the difficulties associated with studying psychological reports.

Much has been written about the task of creating forensic reports, and those who seek to improve their report-writing skills can easily find multiple sources of guidance. Abundant advice about practical matters has emerged, and that advice is largely consistent across sources ( Buchanan & Norko, 2011 ; DeMier & Otto, 2017 ; Karson & Nadkarni, 2013 ; Melton et al., 2018 ; Miller & Gagliardi, 2016 ; Otto et al., 2014 ). Most of this advice, unfortunately, is not based on empirical studies. That does not mean it is wrong; each piece of advice has a rational basis which, at its core, generally has an ethical foundation. It is therefore likely that much of the guidance is useful. But, the practice of report writing would likely benefit from a greater empirical examination of some of the truths that forensic psychologists appear to hold as self-evident.

Given the wealth of good sources related to forensic report writing, this chapter will focus on unanswered empirical questions. Practical guidance with a rational and/or ethical basis that has attained broad consensus will be briefly reviewed, and the remainder of the chapter will focus on ideas for research that would address empirical questions for which there are few current answers. Note that the two categories are not mutually exclusive; some assuredly rational advice could still be bolstered by empirical study.

Rational Guidance, Informed by Ethics

A forensic report should clearly articulate the psycholegal referral question(s) being addressed. Although this is seemingly obvious, numerous reports fail to clearly identify the referral question, or they may address abilities that are not relevant to the referral question ( Heilbrun & Collins, 1995 ; Robbins et al., 1997 ). Identifying the referral question provides the reader with a clear statement about what the report is and what it is not. It establishes the boundaries and contours of the report. In those cases where the referral question is unclear (and efforts to clarify it were unsuccessful), it describes what the forensic psychologist understood the question to be.

A surprising number of forensic reports lack a description of the notification process, during which an evaluee is informed of the nature and purpose of an examination and the limits of confidentiality ( Budd et al., 2001 ; Heilbrun & Collins, 1995 ; Skeem et al., 1998 ). Some evaluations require informed consent, and that process should be described in the report; evaluations where consent is not required (e.g., a court-ordered evaluation) should nevertheless detail what was explained to the evaluee. A central component should be a statement regarding the extent to which the evaluee understood that explanation.

Sources of information should be included in the forensic report. Indeed, the Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychology (hereafter, SGFP; American Psychological Association, 2013b ) indicate that examiners should “disclose all sources of information obtained in the course of the professional services, and to identify the source of each piece of information” (p. 15). Nevertheless, clinicians differ in the degree of information included. Resnick and Soliman (2011) argued that overspecificity is preferable to underspecificity. The guiding principles about what to include should be clarity and transparency. The reader of the report should have sufficient information to make a fair appraisal of the sources used, as that will inform the weight a reader should give the report.

Relevance should also dictate what is included in—and excluded from—forensic reports. Report authors will always face choices about whether a piece of information is appropriate for a report, and some psychologists struggle to find the right balance between insufficient detail and too much information. Opinions should be built upon a foundation of relevant information, carefully explained. Just as evidence in court should be probative, meaning it tends to prove something central to the issues in dispute, information included in a forensic report should lead the reader closer to the opinion offered.

The way in which information is presented in a forensic report matters. There is consensus that data should be presented that support the inferences, conclusions, and opinions reached by the psychologist. Commonly, this is accomplished by presenting the data first, then discussing how the data led to the psychologist’s conclusions. Conversely, some psychologists state the conclusion first, then provide the data that support it. Regardless of the order, conclusions and opinions should be explicitly linked to the data that underlie them.

Specific words used in the report matter as well. Jargon should be avoided when possible. When avoiding jargon is simply too cumbersome, unfamiliar or technical words should be carefully explained. This begins with the recognition that lay readers will likely not understand much of the language psychologists use on a daily basis, or worse, they may have an erroneous understanding of a term and conclude that it means something other than what the report writer intends. When the psychologist defines the meaning of a term that will be used repeatedly, it is helpful to explain it carefully and bolster the explanation with examples.

Finally, most forensic reports will be strengthened by a discussion of any plausible alternative conclusions. Some novice report writers might worry that such a discussion could weaken or undermine their opinion, but the opposite is likely true. An explanation of alternative conclusions shows the reader that the psychologist considered such possibilities and rejected them in favor of the opinion presented in the report. When psychologists explain the reasons for reaching their conclusions instead of other possible alternatives, they are creating the transparency that leads to a better and more persuasive report.

Empirical Questions

Some of this practical guidance does not appear to be worth exploring empirically, as few would dispute its value. A satirical publication reported a fictitious study which concluded that intoxication increases risky behavior among teens, according to the “Center for Figuring Out Really Obvious Things” ( The Onion, 2002 ). Although some of the practical guidance may appear to be sound on its face and rooted in common sense, there are still empirical questions worth exploring. Focused research could challenge certain assumptions about how reports are read, interpreted, and used by legal consumers.

The remainder of this chapter introduces questions that are worthy of empirical study. A recommended practice is identified, along with its rationale. In most cases, there are both practical and ethical reasons to adhere to the recommendation, and these are discussed briefly. In discussing ethics, both the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (EPPCC) ( American Psychological Association, 2017 ) and SGFP ( American Psychological Association, 2013b ) will be explicitly referenced. While recognizing that the EPPCC only applies to APA members and the SGFP are intended as aspirational in nature, many state licensing boards have adopted aspects of the EPPCC as binding, and a few have even done so for the SGFP (e.g., Pennsylvania) ( Melton et al., 2018 ). As a result, depending on jurisdictional rules, the ethical considerations raised by these sources may have far-reaching implications for forensic practitioners beyond their guidance as useful tools for determining appropriate standards of ethical practice.

Additionally, explicit research questions in need of further study will be offered, but the specifics of any proposed research design go well beyond the scope of the chapter; the questions are intended to spark empirical thoughts about the topics. These empirical questions are summarized in table 8.1 . Finally, practical recommendations will be briefly discussed (if different from what is noted above). For ease of organization, issues will be explored in the order in which they might be expected to appear in a report. First, however, some general writing considerations will be addressed.

First-Person Voice

Although this issue has received scant attention, DeMier and Otto (2017) recommended that forensic reports adopt first-person language, using words like “I” and “me,” instead of an awkward phrase like “the undersigned evaluator.” Although first-person voice is encouraged by some, it should not be colloquial or casual; it should not suggest a personal relationship with the examinee that does not exist. The relationship between the forensic evaluator and the person being examined is a professional one, and that remains the case regardless of whether first-person or third-person language is used. An awkward phrase is not necessary to show that the relationship is not personal. It has been argued that using first-person voice is easier to write, easier to read and understand, and more authentic. Are these arguments valid, or are they merely a stylistic preference with no measurable advantage or disadvantage? The consumers of forensic reports, who are mostly legal actors (i.e., litigants, attorneys, judges, and jury members), are likely to possess the most useful advice about this recommendation. Surveying these individuals about first-person voice in a report might prove useful in determining whether it makes any real difference in how reports are perceived and understood.

Exclusion of Irrelevant Racial or Ethnic Identifiers

Most forensic reports include identification of an examinee’s race and/or ethnicity. Many reports begin with phrases such as, “The defendant is a 36-year-old, White woman,” or “The plaintiff is a 51-year-old, African American man.” The wisdom of including racial or ethnic identifiers as a matter of course, however, has been challenged. Riggs Romaine and Kavanaugh (2019) have argued that such identifiers should only be included when relevant, and they offered guidance for making such decisions.

Racial or ethnic identifiers can precipitate implicit bias. Psychologists may form hypotheses based on such an identifier (e.g., that a person is likely poor, or likely has fewer educational or vocational opportunities, or is at increased risk for unfair criminal justice practices). However, psychologists’ hypotheses will not necessarily be the same as those formed by legal consumers of forensic reports. An attorney or judge, for example, might be at increased risk for erroneous conclusions based solely on implicit biases. There is no basis for assuming that the reader of the forensic report will have the same reactions to the inclusion of a racial or ethnic identifier as the psychologist who prepared the report. As psychologists prepare forensic reports, they should carefully consider whether to include or exclude ethnic or racial identifiers; decisions should be made based on the context of the case, recognizing that in some cases, such information will be crucial (e.g., a claim of workplace discrimination based on race) and that in others, they are likely irrelevant (e.g., competence to proceed in a criminal case).

Proposed research could include inquiries into how practitioners currently decide when to include or exclude such information. Can practitioners make reliable decisions regarding relevance of this information? While some research explores the impact of such information on the reader in clinical settings ( Shin et al., 2016 ), more focused research should examine the impact on the consumer of forensic reports.

Avoid Biased Language

In recent years, forensic psychologists have paid increased attention to bias and various ways to minimize it ( Neal, 2018 ; Neal & Grisso, 2014 ). Of course, doing so is consistent with the general principles of the EPPCC ( American Psychological Association, 2013b ). It is hoped that few forensic reports contain egregious examples of biased language; it would be unusual, for example, to read a custody report that referred to a “deadbeat dad.” In reality, indications of bias tend to be much more subtle, and thus, more difficult for the writer to combat and more difficult for the reader to identify.

However, the reader of a forensic report does not need to be aware of biasing words for them to have an effect (see generally Kahneman, 2013 ). Consider, for example, the words “admit” and “deny.” Although seemingly neutral words, admissions and denials are usually associated with something negative. People admit criminal histories and drug use; they do not tend to “admit” graduating from college or being exonerated.

Careful word choice is essential to avoid biasing effects. Taking care to choose exactly the right word likely helps a writer control for bias as well. Neal and Brodsky (2016) included the removal of value-laden language from reports as one way to address bias.

Do such subtleties make a difference in the minds of legal consumers who read forensic reports? Careful research in this area, where clinicians, laypeople, and legal professionals read excerpts with and without biased language could reveal whether such effects are present, and the impact of any effects found. Such research could also provide insight into the best word choices to avoid unintended consequences.

Focus on the Forensic Question

Some of the earliest criticisms of forensic report writing focused on the fact that mental health professionals tended to focus on clinical issues rather than psycholegal referral questions ( Bazelon, 1974 ; Elwork, 1984 ; Vann, 1965 ). Rather than addressing the narrow issue of interest to the court, mental health practitioners would often complete a standard clinical evaluation with a focus on diagnosis, which was often inappropriately equated with the relevant psycholegal issue. Some reports even went well beyond the limits of the psychologists’ expertise ( Morse, 1978 ).

The SGFP ( American Psychological Association, 2013b ) direct, “In reports and testimony, forensic practitioners typically provide information about examinees’ functional abilities, capacities, knowledge, and beliefs, and address their opinions and recommendations to the identified psycholegal issues” (p. 15). Allan and Grisso (2014) argued that the ethical principles of fidelity and responsibility dictate that “clinician’s reports should clearly define the legal and forensic questions they were asked, which establishes the boundaries and purpose of the evaluation” (p. 470).

Do the consumers of forensic reports appreciate the meaningful difference between a report that addresses the psycholegal question and limits itself to only those questions that were posed? This has been an area of significant focus for report authors, and some legal commentators have remarked about it in scholarly works ( Morse, 1978 ). What is not known, however, is the degree to which the everyday legal or lay consumer favors this distinction. How much attention do legal consumers pay to this aspect of report fidelity, and does it affect their decisions to rely on experts whom they perceive to clearly state the referral questions and limit their reports to the relevant issues?

Research could examine judges’ and attorneys’ reactions and ratings of reports that offer mere psychological diagnosis as compared to reports that adhere to the psycholegal question posed, to determine if legal decision makers are aware of this important differentiation. Regardless of the outcome, it is important that forensic reports continue to make such distinctions. However, if no differences in ratings of report quality are found, it may be incumbent on the profession to explain to the legal world why such differences in focus are important.

Document All Sources

The SGFP ( American Psychological Association, 2013b ) note that forensic practitioners should use multiple sources to corroborate their data points. A complete and detailed list of all the sources that were collected, reviewed, and relied upon will lead to a more credible report. Listing sources which were sought but not obtained makes clear the information the clinician thought might be useful, but which was unavailable. This demonstrates the good faith and due diligence of the examiner, and it also reveals potential weaknesses in the report.

It is doubtful that any research finding would change the recommendation to provide a clear and comprehensive list of the materials reviewed. What is unknown is whether there is a difference in how such reports are perceived. Are reports that include this information perceived as more transparent? Would they be rated as better, more objective, or more credible? A comparison of reports that lack such detail could be compared with those that provide it. Raters could be legal consumers, forensic psychologists, and psychologists who have no particular forensic expertise. In addition to developing evidence that the practice is indeed a good one, such research could illuminate differences in the way forensic reports are perceived as a function of one’s expertise or role.

Focus on Relevant Information

A clear ethical basis exists for relying on relevant information. The EPPCC assert, “Psychologists include in written and oral reports and consultations only information germane to the purpose for which the communication is made” ( American Psychological Association, 2017 , Standard 4.04). The SGFP ( American Psychological Association, 2013b ) further define that purpose: “Forensic examiners seek to assist the trier of fact to understand evidence or determine a fact in issue, and they provide information that is most relevant to the psycholegal issue” (p. 15). Failure to abide by these principles can have consequences in real life. As Griffith et al. (2010) noted, “Including in the report pejorative or embarrassing information that is irrelevant to the legal issue may demonstrate a completeness of the interview, but it does so at the cost of the client’s dignity” (p. 39). (For an excellent discussion of this guidance as an ethical duty, see Allan & Grisso, 2014 ).

Relying on relevant information will lead to opinions that are better understood. Opinions that make intuitive sense will also be more defensible. Despite such sound ethical and practical rationales for linking one’s opinions to relevant information, multiple sources have noted deficits in this area ( Heilbrun, 2001 ; Heilbrun & Collins, 1995 ; Otto et al., 2014 ; Resnick & Soliman, 2011 ; Robbins et al., 1997 ).

What is unknown is the degree to which people can discern relevant from irrelevant information. A host of potential research questions emerge. How is relevance determined? Can this be operationalized in any meaningful way? Would clinicians agree about the relevance of certain facts in a given report? Would legal consumers of reports rate relevance in the same manner as clinicians? What is the reliability of judgments of relevance? To what extent would individuals from different professions value this principle?

Separate Facts, Inferences, and Opinions

A fact is something that is known to be true in reality. An inference is a reasonable conclusion drawn from the facts through reasoning. A forensic opinion involves the application of facts and inferences to reach a position on a psycholegal question. Without facts and their accompanying inferences, there is no basis for a psychologist to form an opinion on a disputed psycholegal matter.

Care should be taken to link opinions to their underlying facts and inferences ( Allan & Grisso, 2014 ; Otto et al., 2014 ). Not only is such practice consistent with the SGFP ( American Psychological Association, 2013b ), it mirrors the thought process of many attorneys and judges. Unlike other types of testimony allowed in the courtroom, experts are allowed to go beyond mere facts and offer opinions based on those facts and their professional inferences. Federal Rule of Evidence 703, Bases of an Expert, explicitly acknowledges the importance of the relationship between facts and expert opinions, highlighting that the facts or inferences that underlie the expert’s opinion must be the type that experts in the field would reasonably rely upon in forming their opinions (Federal Rules of Evidence, 2020). In other words, the courts are very much interested in how the expert connects facts and inferences to their expert opinions in determining the admissibility of expert testimony at trial.

It is not a far reach to assume these same considerations are important for conclusions and opinions offered in forensic reports. What are the facts, and do those facts and inferences support a particular position in a legal dispute? Differentiating facts, inferences, and opinions makes for a transparent report, with conclusions dictated by logic in a way that should appeal to the legal consumer.

Whether it does appeal to the legal consumer, however, is an unanswered empirical question. Psychologists who take pains to adhere to this guidance presumably do so to write better and more persuasive reports. Whether such reports are more persuasive is an open question, and one that would lend itself easily to experimental study where reports containing the same facts could be manipulated. A comparison of reports with and without an explicit link between the facts, inference, and opinions could be conducted with both clinicians and legal consumers. Further studies could explore whether the order of presentation leads to differences in understanding or persuasiveness, or in some cases, the admissibility of expert testimony. Common sense dictates that opinions should be framed in such a manner that the logic is clear and understandable, but experiments could shed light on the most effective ways of doing so.

Minimize and Explain Jargon

When speaking, a person sending a message can gauge whether the message is accurately received via both verbal and nonverbal feedback; if the message is not understood as intended, there is often an opportunity for clarification. No such immediate feedback loop exists for the psychologist preparing a forensic report. Forensic report writers need to use words and terms that are known to their intended readers. They should be careful not to assume that their readers will know technical terms that are used routinely within the mental health community. Nevertheless, jargon is rampant in psychological reports in general ( Groth-Marnot & Horvath, 2006 ; Harvey, 1997 , 2006 ) and in forensic reports in particular ( Allnut & Chaplow, 2000 ; Conroy, 2006 ).

Research could inform the profession regarding the best ways to communicate complicated or unfamiliar ideas to legal consumers and laypeople. Would legal consumers prefer explanations of psychological concepts without any jargon, with jargon that is explained, or with jargon without explanation? Beyond what they prefer, what would lead to the highest degree of understanding? Similar to work performed on Miranda warnings ( Rogers, Hazelwood, Sewell, Harrison, & Shuman, 2008a ; Rogers, Hazelwood, Sewell, Shuman, & Blackwood, 2008b ; Rogers et al., 2010 ), the comprehensibility of the language used in forensic reports could be examined, and the necessary education to comprehend these reports could be studied. Could jargon be explained more efficiently, such that lengthy or cumbersome explanations do not deter the reader?

Psychological Testing

There is no discernible consensus about how psychological testing should be presented in a forensic report; indeed, there is no consensus on whether specific test scores should be included in forensic reports, or what level (if any) of both normative comparisons (e.g., standard deviations from mean, percentiles) and error intervals (e.g., standard errors, confidence intervals) should be included with those scores. This area is ripe for empirical investigation. What should be presented, and how? Should specific scores be included? If so, should they be presented in the narrative of the report or appended as a technical supplement? Should test scores be integrated into a coherent synopsis, or should they be addressed individually? What are the advantages of disadvantages of each approach?

Some data would suggest that psychologists are not particularly adept at the complex cognitive task of integrating test results (Garb, 1998 , 2005 ). It is therefore reasonable to assume that a lay reader or legal consumer would be even less suited to this task than a psychologist.

There are types of evaluations where specific test scores are likely crucial (e.g., whether an individual education plan is mandated for a child, or whether an individual is ineligible for execution due to intellectual disability). However, specific scores are less important in other types of psychological testing (e.g., personality assessment). Psychologists need to determine the best approach based on the individual demands of a case and the anticipated knowledge base of the intended recipient. Empirical findings to guide such decisions would be a boon to the profession.

Include Explanations of Reasoning and Report Limitations

Experts in legal settings sometimes use ipse dixit reasoning, although “reasoning” is a misnomer. This Latin phrase is loosely translated as “because I said so.” Experts who do not explain their reasoning, and instead aim to rely on their credentials as a source of authority, are not helpful to the court. To have value to an adversarial legal system, an opinion must be susceptible to challenge on its merits. When the explanation is not explicit, those merits are hidden, and the expert’s conclusions cannot be properly challenged.

Such a shortcoming is explicitly addressed by the SGFP ( American Psychological Association, 2013b ), which direct that forensic psychologists “strive to offer … the basis and reasoning underlying the opinions” (p. 17) and that they “avoid partisan presentation of unrepresentative, incomplete, or inaccurate evidence that might mislead finders of fact” (p. 9). Moreover, to be of the greatest value to the legal consumer, the report’s limitations should be explicit. The SGFP advise, “[F]orensic practitioners strive to have readily available for inspection all data which they considered, regardless of whether the data supports their opinion” (p. 16).

Forensic clinicians appear to accept that such guidance is sound ( Neal & Grisso, 2014 ; Otto et al., 2014 ; Robinson & Acklin, 2010 ; Skeem et al., 1998 ). But, whether legal consumers of forensic reports agree is unclear. Some forensic practitioners speculate that some attorneys and judges fail to carefully read forensic reports; instead, they skip to the last page looking for the bottom line. Practitioners can likely support such suspicions with anecdotal evidence. Are reports that explicitly address inconsistent data and/or alternate hypotheses viewed more positively by other forensic clinicians? Do legal consumers perceive the advantages noted by psychologists?

For both ethical and practical reasons, psychologists should continue to include explicit and transparent explanations of their reasoning. Similarly, they should continue to include, where appropriate, data that are inconsistent with or contrary to the report’s conclusion. A discussion of the reasons that alternative hypotheses were rejected will strengthen the report’s conclusions by showing that the psychologist was alert to other conclusions and that those conclusions were considered prior to reaching a more appropriate one.

The “last page problem” merits attention. If some judges, attorneys, and other consumers of forensic reports are indeed skimming the reports in search of the bottom line, are there ways to frame reports that will alter this behavior? Researchers could evaluate various strategies to encourage more people to read the complete report.

Presenting a Diagnosis

Prior to the publication of the fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013a ), mental health disorders were generally offered within the multiaxial system. As a result, many reports had diagnoses set apart, often indented, like so:

Now that the DSM has abandoned the multiaxial system of diagnosis, perhaps it is through force of habit that many psychologists still separate or otherwise highlight diagnoses, such that the eye is drawn to them in the report. Sometimes, the diagnosis is simply discussed in the narrative of the report, but even in such instances, the diagnosis may be highlighted via boldface, or perhaps the words in the diagnosis are capitalized. (If cancer is not capitalized, why should schizophrenia be?)

Does the manner in which a diagnosis is presented have an impact on how much attention or importance is ascribed to it by the lay reader or legal consumer? Although this may be a subtle point, it is worth considering whether readers react in a different manner depending on whether or not the diagnosis is highlighted or set aside in a way that is easy to see.

Ultimate Opinion Issues

This well-worn “controversy” is familiar to most forensic psychologists. Some authorities (e.g., Melton et al., 2018 ) argue that forensic reports should not offer opinions on the ultimate legal issue, as doing so infringes on the province of the fact-finder. Others (e.g., Rogers & Ewing, 1989 ) argue that sidestepping the psycholegal referral question results in imprecise or confusing opinions. Otto et al. (2014) termed the issue a “red herring” and a distraction from the critical issue of explanation of an opinion. They wrote, “When forensic reports contain adequate explanations of the examiner’s reasoning, the legal factfinder is free to draw conclusions independent of any that might be proposed by the expert” (Otto et al., p. 84).

What forensic psychologists recommend is inconsistent; what legal consumers want and need appears to be variable at best. When a forensic psychologist was asked his ultimate opinion about insanity during a federal trial, he explained that the Federal Rules of Evidence prevented him from expressing that opinion on the stand. The judge responded, “Why do you think we brought you here?” (R. L. Denney, personal communication, December 1, 2020).

A survey of attorneys and judges could result in a better understanding of their positions. Do attorneys vary in their expectations about whether forensic reports should address ultimate issues? Do their expectations vary by type of case, or by jurisdiction, or by some other mediating variable? When do legal consumers find ultimate opinions helpful and when do they find them harmful? Are their expectations consistent with the law?

The existing literature in forensic psychology provides abundant guidance on writing forensic reports, but much of that guidance relies on experience rather than empirical data. Psychologists have developed what appears to be sound advice that will lead to reports that are clear and transparent, and psychologists have assumed that such reports will be most helpful to the courts and other entities that resolve disputes. However, that guidance appears to come solely from the perspective of report writers. Psychologists offer advice about what they believe will be most helpful to courts, but that advice is rarely verified by the legal consumers of reports.

A useful research agenda should focus on legal consumers as much as it does on the perspectives of psychologists. The way legal consumers use forensic reports, their perceptions of and reactions to such reports, and the differential effects of word choices within reports should be investigated to determine how best to serve the legal community.

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  • v.31(2); 2020 Apr 1

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Custody Evaluation Process and Report Writing

Dong sun chung.

1 W Psychiatric Clinic, Seongnam, Korea

Duk Soo Moon

2 Department of Psychiatry, Jeju National University School of Medicine, Jeju, Korea

Myung Hoon Lee

3 Raon Psychiatric Clinic, Incheon, Korea

Young Sook Kwack

As in western countries, divorce rates in South Korea have recently been rising, and family disruption has become one of serious social problems. Parents are able to express their opinions and wishes confidently, but the thoughts and wishes of children, especially infants and young children, tend to be ignored. Children can also experience several emotional and behavioral problems during the process of and after their parents’ divorce. When South Korean family courts determine custody arrangements, they typically do not have a systematic strategy and process based on custody evaluation to help children and their parents overcome conflicts and build healthy parent-child relationships after divorce. Furthermore, under the current court system, it is difficult for mental health specialists and child psychiatrists to intervene in familial conflicts as mediators or therapists during the course of divorce proceedings. Acknowledging these limitations, the South Korean family court system implemented a formal program for custody evaluations by child psychiatrists and psychologists in 2017. However, they have faced challenges such as a shortage of experienced specialist and lack of a training system or instruments for evaluation. In this paper, the authors aim to share professional knowledge of and experiences with aspects of the custody evaluation process, such as indications, procedures, methods, psychological tests, resources, and final report writing, to better serve children and their parents undergoing a painful divorce process.

INTRODUCTION

Custody evaluation is the most complex and difficult process in the field of forensic psychiatry [ 1 ]. Given the expansive nature of the underlying psychological issues (i.e., the best interest of the child and the ability of the parents to meet those interest, standard custody evaluations should assess the child’s and parents’ behaviors, abilities, and needs [ 2 ]. A custody evaluation may be indicated in the following cases [ 3 ]: 1) one or both parents have a significant mental disorder that affects their parenting skills; 2) the child has a mental disorder that must be considered; 3) domestic violence (including abuse by a parent, sibling, or the child) has been alleged or documented; 4) concern about a child’s relationship with the noncustodial parent being damaged by actions of the custodial parent intended to alienate the noncustodial parent.

BASIC PRINCIPLES

A forensic evaluator’s duty is to objectively report psychiatric findings as an expert. Two characteristics are critical: first, the evaluator must have no therapeutic relationship with the subject; and second, there are clear limits to confidentiality in a forensic evaluation [ 3 ]. The methodology or order of the evaluation may vary depending on the evaluator’s personal propensity, must include the following parent-related, child-related, and family-related factors [ 3 ]:

  • 1) Parent-related: Parenting skills, physical and mental health, substance abuse, current and previous involvement in the the child welfare facilities, and willingness to cooperate with the other parent in raising the child.
  • 2) Child-related: Mental health, attachment to each parent, and preferences regarding custody or living arrangements.
  • 3) Family-related: History of domestic violence, allegations of abuse, and allegations of parental alienation.

EVALUATION PROCESS AND CONTENT

The overall evaluation process includes three areas: interviews with and evaluation of the parents, interview with and evaluation of the child (including observation of parent-child interactions in preschoolers), and collateral information gathering [ 1 ]. The courts (including judges) favor a more child-focused report that addresses the best interest of the child and provides recommendations regarding custody and visitation. Timely completion of a report (e.g., within an average of 5–6 weeks) is also highly preferred [ 4 ].

Interviews with parents

The initial interview session with the parents should address the following [ 5 ]:

  • 1) The parents’ marriage chronology, including the birth of the child, separation, and divorce.
  • 2) The current status of legal proceedings (i.e., trial date).
  • 3) Court orders regarding the custody evaluation.
  • 4) The current visitation schedule and custody status.
  • 5) Each parent’s perception of his or her own relationship with the child.
  • 6) Each parent’s understanding of general information about the child and response to the child’s specific needs.
  • 7) Each parent’s parenting plan if granted custody.
  • 8) Each parent’s personal history, criminal record, family history, social support system, and history of psychiatric treatment.

The initial meeting is also used to schedule all further tests and interviews involved in the evaluation. The forensic evaluator must obtain informed consent from both parents to gather collateral information from the child’s pediatrician, teachers, therapists, and other individuals involved. It is also recommended that the forensic evaluator clearly describe the confidentiality and ethical issues surrounding the role definition early on in the custody evaluation process, informing the child and parents that forensic evaluations do not provide total confidentiality [ 6 ].

During the interview sessions with each parent, the evaluator should assess whether the parent is more focused on the child or on the other parent. Many parents waste considerable time during interviews making allegations against the other parent or complaining of the injustice suffered. In such cases, the evaluator must remind the parent of the overall time schedule and make it clear that an inaccurate evaluation due to lack of time would be detrimental to the child’s best interest. The evaluator should also identify the child’s developmental history and usual routine [ 5 ]. Typically, this may require either one long meeting of 2 to 3 hours, or several shorter meetings [ 6 ]. Finally, to assess the parents’ attitudes and mind toward parenting, the evaluator should ask parents to present a plan for how they would spend time with the child, and evaluate their responses to hypothetical situations such as “If you are granted custody, how will you help your child maintain a good relationship with your ex-spouse?” and “If you are not granted custody, how will you maintain a good relationship with your child?” [ 5 ].

Assessments of parenting style may consider each parent’s opinion of how the other parent spends time with the child and how the parent-child relationship would change after custody is resolved. The evaluation may also include questions about each parent’s practice and philosophy of parental discipline [ 5 ]. Assessment of each parent’s caretaking history (specifically, which parent is more involved in feeding, bathing, supervising homework, organizing birthday parties, and taking the child to the pediatrician) is crucial. The more involved parent is more likely to be granted custody [ 6 ].

The following important details should be considered as part of the custody evaluation [ 7 ]:

  • 1) The child’s and each parent’s wishes or preferences regarding custody.
  • 2) The child’s interactions with each parent, siblings, and individuals who may significantly influence the child.
  • 3) The child’s adjustment to home, school, and community environments.
  • 4) The physical and mental health of all individuals involved.
  • 5) Parental attempts at alienation.
  • 6) The quality and nature of the emotional relationship between each parent and the child.
  • 7) Each parent’s emotional and psychological stability.
  • 8) Each parent’s parenting skills.
  • 9) Each parent’s openness to visitation by the other parent.
  • 10) Each parent’s proposals for the child’s custody and visitation arrangements.
  • 11) Each parent’s pre-divorce parental role and parenting capacity.
  • 12) Each parent’s degree of anger and distress related to the divorce.
  • 13) Each parent’s sexual orientation.

The evaluator should also assess possible drug abuse or alcoholism in each parent, and if substance use is revealed, its impact on the child [ 5 ]. Finally, it is important for a custody evaluation to assess the presence of mental disease in each parent, with a focus not on the psychiatric diagnosis per se, but impact of potential parental psychiatric impairment on the parent-child relationship [ 8 ].

Interview with the child

Interviews with the child are an integral part of a custody evaluation. It may include a clinical evaluation of the child and assessment of the child’s attachment to each parent, the impact of the parents’ divorce or separation on the child, and parental attempts to indoctrinate the child [ 6 ].

The evaluator should meet with each child alone unless there are reasons against it (e.g., the child is an infant), and be attentive to any special developmental needs the child may have. If the child is sufficiently mature to express an independent and informed perspective, the evaluator should consider the child’s stated wishes and concerns regarding allocation of parental rights and responsibilities [ 9 ]. When preparing the evaluation report, the evaluator should describe the manner in which information concerning the child’s perceptions and/or sentiments was obtained, and specify the weight assigned to these perceptions and/or sentiments [ 9 ]. As mentioned previously, when evaluating the child, the evaluator must consider clinical diagnoses, level of attachment to parent, any expressed preferences for either parent, and any evidence of indoctrination by either parent. Siblings should be observed together to assess how supportive they are to each other and how they help lessen each other’s anxiety. Each child should then be separately interviewed at least once or twice, with each parent bringing the child at least once.

In a child interview, the evaluator should first explain the purpose of counseling and the evaluator’s role in the process. Children as young as 3 years can understand an explanation that the evaluator’s role is to help the judge determine who the child will live with [ 5 ]. The evaluator may then ask questions to explore the child’s perception of the family’s current situation and what will happen to the family in the future. The evaluator should use appropriate communication materials to develop a warm and comfortable relationship with the child. With younger children, use of a dollhouse can be emotionally evocative and help the evaluator to access the child’s inner world [ 5 ]. Children as young as 3 can usually be interviewed alone, if they are comfortable separating from the parent. Generally, the evaluator should be cautious about asking the children, especially young children, where they would prefer to live. If the child volunteers a preference regarding custody, the evaluator should explore the context and reason [ 5 ]. Questions should be posed in a way that minimizes their importance. It can be useful to mention that the judge will make the final decision regarding custody, not the child or the evaluator [ 6 ]. The opinions and preferences of children aged 5 years or older (adolescents in particular) are regarded significantly. Children’s preferences should be taken seriously only when they are developmentally mature enough to independently express their opinions [ 9 ].

Interviews with preschool-age and younger children

Parent-child play session.

The evaluator can usually begin the interview in the presence of a parent. In infants, the evaluator should assess the parent’s attachment to the child and the appropriateness of each parent’s plan for the child considering his or her developmental needs [ 5 , 10 ]. The child’s relationships with other adults who live with the child or play a role in caretaking (i.e., grandparents or partners) should also be assessed [ 10 ]. Given the lack of standardized observational evaluation instruments, evaluation of parent-child interactions is considered very important [ 11 , 12 ]. The evaluator should observe each parent-child relationship, even for preverbal children, unless such evaluation is impossible or verifiable threats to the child’s physical or psychological safety pose a foreseeable risk of significant harm. If the evaluator is unable or opts not to conduct parent-child observations, he or she is obligated to articulate the reasons why [ 13 ]. The evaluator should allow the parent and child to interact however they prefer, and may encourage the parent to participate in play initiated by the child [ 6 ] or direct a parent and child of appropriate age to cooperatively complete a task. For example, the evaluator could invite the parent and child to engage in an activity such as drawing pictures or building with blocks together, or ask what they plan to do together on weekends [ 5 ]. Parent-child play sessions must be unstructured and take place after the child’s initial visit to the office. The evaluator should observe how comfortable the parent-child interactions appear in terms of interaction methods and communication skills, how the parent reacts to the child’s needs or anxiety symptoms, disciplinary patterns, and methods to enhance the child’s self-esteem [ 5 ].

Separation-reunion session

Approximately halfway through the session, the evaluator should ask the parent to leave and explain to the child that the parent will be waiting outside the interview room (this procedure should be explained to the parent in advance). The evaluator can then observe how the parent and child respond to and handle the separation when the parent leaves the room [ 3 ].

Individual session

During the remainder of the session, the evaluator may use other techniques to assess the child, including play or games, structured doll techniques, and drawing [ 14 ]. At the end of the session, the evaluator should observe how the child and parent handle their reunification.

Interviews with school-aged children

For evaluation purposes, the evaluator can use a semi-structured interview or projective questions, such as the baby bird story, isolated islands story, or magician story. The baby bird story is presented below as a typical example [ 6 ].

Evaluator: “Once upon a time, there was a baby bird that lived in a ...”

Child: ‘‘Nest.’’

Evaluator: “The baby bird lived in the nest with ...”

Child: “The mother bird and father bird.”

Evaluator: “One day there was a big storm with a lot of...” Child: “Thunder,” “lightning,” ‘‘wind,” etc.

Evaluator: “There was so much wind that the mother bird was blown over in that direction and the father bird was blown over in the other direction. The baby bird was blown out of the nest. The baby bird, by the way, could fly, but only a little bit. Tell me what happens next in the story.” (The evaluator should then encourage the child to finish the story with as much detail as possible.)

Interviews with adolescents

With adolescents, the evaluator may begin the interview by asking them to share their opinions about the current situation at home. This question aims to determine how they perceive the relationship between their parents, what they know of the reasons for their parents’ divorce, and what effects the divorce is having on their own lives [ 6 ].

Most adolescents can discuss the advantages and disadvantages of life with each parent, the merits of particular visitation arrangements, and how they can best protect their own lives from being affected by their parents’ divorce. Adolescents may express definite opinions about where they want to live and what they want to say to the judge. The evaluator should respectfully explore in detail the reasons for adolescents’ custodial preferences and their plans for maintaining a good relationship with both parents [ 6 ].

Collateral information

Custody evaluations often rely on collateral information to validate the findings of counseling and the information obtained from the litigating parties. The custody evaluator must recognize that oral reports made by the litigants may have limited accuracy, and thus seek to confirm or reject these reports, claims, or allegations based on information from other sources [ 3 ]. The following individuals may be contacted by phone for collateral information (although the evaluator must be aware that they may already be allied with one of the parents): family members or caregivers currently living with either parent, such as stepparents, grandparents, nannies, or siblings not directly involved in the custody dispute; pediatricians; and school or daycare center teachers. Collateral information can also be gathered from police reports, the child’s or parents’ previous or current therapists, and earlier trial hearings [ 3 , 6 ]. The evaluator should be mindful of the importance of gathering information from multiple sources to thoroughly explore alternative hypotheses for issues pertinent to the evaluation [ 9 ].

EVALUATION INSTRUMENTS

In child custody evaluations, psychological testing provides objective support for the evaluator’s opinions, helps balance bias and potential errors in clinical interviews, and provides working hypotheses that can be verified by other data sources [ 15 , 16 ]. Although the majority of mental health professionals who conduct child custody evaluations use standard psychological tests, tests specific to custody issues have been developed over the past decade and are being used with increasing frequency [ 2 ].

A psychological test to be used for custody evaluation must satisfy five criteria [ 17 ]: 1) widespread use and universality; 2) evidence of adequate reliability; 3) relevance to the legal issue at hand, established by validation research; 4) standardized administration for generalizability; and 5) consideration of the effects of response style on the test results (e.g., “faking good,” malingering, and social desirability). When utilizing a psychological test, the custody evaluator should refrain from making substantial changes to the test’s format, administration mode, instructions, language, or content unless extraordinary circumstances make such changes necessary. In such cases, the custody evaluator must articulate the reasons for all changes made.

The following review demonstrates the instruments specifically used for custody evaluation, including psychological testing instruments commonly used in clinical settings ( Table 1 ).

Psychological tests in custody evaluation

ASPECT: Ackerman-Schoendorf Scales for Parent Evaluation of Custody, BPS: Bricklin Perceptual Scales, CAT: Children’s Apperception Test, MMPI: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, PCRI: Parent-Child Relationship Inventory, PORT: Perception of Relationship Test, PSI: Parenting Stress Index, TAT: Thematic Apperception Test, WISC: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 or Personality Assessment Inventory

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 [ 18 ] or Personality Assessment Inventory [ 19 ] can be used to screen for unidentified parental psychopathology and determine each parent’s overall psychological adjustment. Both tests also contain scales to indicate the subject’s openness to providing sensitive information; identifying a defensive parent is often particularly useful when allegations of abuse or misconduct have been made.

General intelligence tests or projective psychological tests

Projective psychological tests allow an evaluator to observe parents’ efforts to cope with an unstructured and stressful situation and provide information about their psychological resources and characteristics [ 20 ].

Ackerman-Schoendorf Scales for Parent Evaluation of Custody

The Ackerman-Schoendorf Scales for Parent Evaluation of Custody (ASPECT) was designed to aid mental health professionals in making child custody recommendations by quantifying characteristics of parents and parent-child interactions conceptually related to effective parenting. It was developed for use with parents of children between 2 and 18 years [ 21 ]. Rather than a test, the ASPECT is a system that combines the results of psychological testing, interviews, and observations of each parent and child to provide data regarding each parent’s suitability for custody. The underlying assumption of the assessment is that the “psychological parent,” who provides continuous companionship and a stable environment, is the more effective parent.

Gathering the data needed for the ASPECT requires considerable time and several assessment steps [ 22 ]. For example, each parent is asked to complete a Parent Questionnaire that assesses preferred custody arrangements, the child’s development and relationship with the parent, the relationship between the parents, and the parent’s background (e.g., substance use patterns, psychiatric treatment history, and legal history). In addition, parents complete the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Rorschach test, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised, and either the Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised or the Norris Educational Achievement Test. Each child is administered an age-appropriate IQ test, the Draw-A-Family Test, and either the Thematic Apperception Test or the Children’s Apperception Test, depending on the child’s age [ 23 ]. The clinician uses data from the above assessment procedures to complete 56 forced-choice questions in a yes-no format for each parent. These items contribute to three subscales: the Observational Scale, the Social Scale, and the Cognitive-Emotional Scale [ 21 ].

Ackerman and Ackerman [ 24 ] asked custody evaluators to rate the importance of various factors to the issue of child custody. The 10 most important factors were as follows, in descending order of significance:

  • 1) The substance abuse status of each parent.
  • 2) The parents’ parenting skills.
  • 3) Parental attempts at alienation.
  • 4) The nature and quality of the child’s emotional relationship with each parent.
  • 5) The emotional or psychological stability of each parent.
  • 6) Each parent’s openness to the child’s contact with the other parent.
  • 7) The parents’ history of compliance with the court during the separation.
  • 8) The parents’ pre-separation roles in caretaking and parenting.
  • 9) The stated preferences of a child aged 15 years or above.
  • 10) The parents’ expressed anger and bitterness regarding the divorce.

Bricklin Perceptual Scales

The Bricklin Perceptual Scales (BPS) measures children’s perceptions about each parent [ 22 ]. The BPS consists of 64 questions, half of which pertain to each parent [ 25 ]. The questions alternate in their focus on father or mother, each question being asked about each parent at different points during the examination. The questions require the child to indicate how well the item describes the parent. Along with each question, the child is presented with an 8-inch long card showing a thick black line with “not so well” printed at one end and “very well” at the other. The child responds to 64 questions by punching a hole at an appropriate place along the line. Administration of the test takes approximately 20 to 30 minutes. The test is designed for all children older than 6, although Bricklin [ 26 ] claims that some children as young as 4 may be able to understand the instructions.

Perception of Relationship Test

The Perception of Relationship Test (PORT) is a projective test that measures the degree to which a child seeks psychological “closeness” with each parent. The current revised version consists of seven tasks [ 2 ]. The first task asks the child to draw each parent. The second task presents the child with line-drawings of a mother and a father respectively and asks the child to draw a self-representation on the same page. The third task presents a line drawing of both parents and asks the child to draw a self-representation on the same page. The fourth task requests the child to draw the family and the fifth to draw the family “doing something.” The sixth picture shows two stables, one labeled with “mom” and the other “dad”; the child is asked to draw a line indicating where the horse in the middle of the picture will go. The seventh task presents the child with picture of a little dog asleep in a bed dreaming about mom and another dreaming about dad. The child is asked to describe what the dogs are dreaming about. The test is designed to be used with children 3 years and 2 months of age or older, although Bricklin provides some examples from children as young as 2 years of age [ 23 ].

Parent-Child Relationship Inventory

The Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI) assesses parents’ attitudes toward parenting and their children in several dimensions. It was developed based on the Mother-Child Relationship Evaluation. The PCRI is a 78-item, self-report questionnaire with items rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.” Administration takes approximately 15 minutes and requires a fourth-grade reading level [ 2 ].

The PCRI is divided into seven content scales, which reflect the major features of parenting and the parent-child relationship, and two validity indicators. The content scales are Parental Support, Satisfaction with Parenting, Involvement, Communication, Limit Setting, Autonomy, and Role Orientation. The validity scales consist of Social Desirability scale and Inconsistency scale intended to measure the tendency to give inconsistent responses. High scores on the PCRI scale indicate positive parenting characteristics and good parenting skills, and low scores indicate poor parenting skills [ 23 ].

Parenting Stress Index

The Parenting Stress Index (PSI) was developed as a screening instrument for use with parents of children aged 12 and under [ 27 ]. It evaluates the extent to which the parent experiences stress in the childrearing role. The current third version of the instrument includes 101 items rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.” Administration takes approximately 20 to 25 minutes and requires a fifth-grade reading level. A 36-item short form of the tool also exists. The PSI has been translated into eight languages.

The underlying assumptions of the instrument are that stress is cumulative and multidimensional in both source and kind. Over 95% of the items included in the PSI were designed in relation to specific research findings. The PSI measures stress in the Child Domain, the Parent Domain, and an optional 19-item Life Stress Domain that measures the number of major life events experienced over the past year.

Research suggests that, overall, higher PSI scores can suggest increased stress in parent-child interactions and an increased likelihood that the child will exhibit or develop behavioral problems in the parent’s care. The tool can also provide information about the types of stress that affect the parent’s functioning, which may be useful in helping the professional further explore that topic. It would be inappropriate, however, to conclude that high PSI scores indicate that a parent is unable to parent or is abusing the child.

CUSTODY EVALUATION REPORT WRITING

The evaluator’s opinions should be based on information and data obtained by applying reliable principles and methods [ 9 ]. When writing a custody evaluation report, complex medical terms or jargon should be avoided, considering the judges and court investigators who will be reading the report; if medical, psychological, or psychiatric terms must be used, they should be defined [ 3 ]. Judges and attorneys also prefer shorter reports (e.g., 10–12 pages). Generally, legal professionals expect a child-focused report that succinctly addresses the major legal issues before the court (e.g., the child’s needs, the parents’ strengths and weaknesses in meeting those needs, child custody criteria, and recommendations regarding custody and visitation) [ 1 ]. Recommendations should be based on clearly articulated assumptions, interpretations, and inferences consistent with established professional and scientific standards [ 11 ].

The custody evaluation report should contain the following components and details [ 6 ]:

  • 1) Identifying information: Names and birthdates of the children and the contesting parties (usually the parents).
  • 2) Referral information: A brief chronology of the marriage, the current status of the children’s custody and visitation, an excerpt from the court order authorizing the evaluation, and a statement of the circumstances of the referral and the specific purpose of the evaluation.
  • 3) Evaluation procedure: A list of the various meetings/interviews held, the psychological tests used, and the outside information collected.
  • 4) Observations: Observations should be presented in a separate section for each family member. Each parent should be discussed individually, with a summary of the parent’s strengths, weaknesses, personality traits, significant medical and psychiatric problems, and whether these factors affect the individual’s ability to be a good parent. Each child should also be discussed individually, with a summary of strengths, weaknesses, any psychiatric disorder, and how the child is coping with the parents’ divorce. The report also should address the child’s attachment to each parent, whether the child has a preference regarding custody and the reasons for the preference, and whether the child seems unduly influenced by a certain parent.
  • 5) Conclusion: A list of specific statements supported by data (i.e., the aforementioned observations). For instance, the evaluator might conclude that one parent has had a major mental illness in the past that is likely to be a problem again in the future; that a parent has personality traits or a personality disorder that affect his or her parenting abilities; or that the children are more uniformly attached and bonded to one parent than the other.
  • 6) Recommendations: This section should follow logically from the conclusions. The evaluator may make recommendations regarding the custody of the children, the visitation schedule, whether visitation should be supervised, whether any member of the family should be in psychotherapy, whether the parents should attend parenting classes, and other issues important to the particular evaluation case.

CONCLUSIONS

Custody evaluation is part of a process aimed at minimizing emotional problems likely to occur in a child during or after the divorce process ( Figure 1 ). Evaluation conclusions should be preceded by objective assessments, obtained through interviews performed in a neutral setting with each parent, the child, and other individuals significant in the child’s life; a variety of psychometric instruments may be used to ensure standardized professionalism. To conclude the evaluation process, the evaluator writes a custody evaluation report including recommendations based on the findings.

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is JKACAP-31-058-f1.jpg

Process of custody evaluation. ASPECT: Ackerman-Schoendorf Scales for Parent Evaluation of Custody, BPS: Bricklin Perceptual Scales, CAT: Children’s Apperception Test, MMPI: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, PCRI: Parent-Child Relationship Inventory, PORT: Perception of Relationship Test, PSI: Parenting Stress Index, TAT: Thematic Apperception Test, WISC: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children.

Acknowledgments

Conflicts of Interest

The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Author Contributions

Project administration: Dong Sun Chung. Supervision: Young Sook Kwack. Writing—original draft: Dong Sun Chung. Writing—review & editing: Duk Soo Moon, Myung Hoon Lee.

All About Forensic & Investigative Sciences

This blog is useful for students and professionals of Forensic Sciences around the world. Also for Crime Scene Investigators, Jurors, and other law enforcement to keepupdatede with new technologies in Forensic Science, and proactive, investigative,and security forensics.

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

How to write a forensic report/analysis report/forensic opinion.

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  • To provides  decision-makers with facts needed to decide the matter  and to ensure a successful investigation.
  • To link the evidences with the crime and the criminal (or suspect)
  • T o prove or disprove the fact in issue
  • T o exonerate the innocent from the case

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Best practices for writing a digital forensics report

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Intelligence or Investigations reports are important for the success of an investigation. But how do you make sure that they are written in a way that makes sense for anyone who needs to read it, regardless of technical background?

We have spoken to Dario Beniamini , CEO and owner of Intellexia , about best practices for writing digital forensics reports.

how to write a forensic court report

Telling a story in a digital forensics report

Information in an investigation can be extremely technical and difficult to validate. In the report the information should be explained in a way which is accessible for everyone.

– In my opinion, the goal of the report is to tell a story, says Dario.

Telling a story in a report is like writing an article or a book. You need to make sense of the story, connect all the pieces together and write it in a way that everyone can understand and follow.

– If you have a nice idea about a book, but your story doesn´t make sense when written down, the reader will just close the book. The same applies for a report. If we just provide what we collected without analysing and making sense of the story, we are not investigators, we are only collectors of evidence, says Dario.

A report could be used in different ways by people with different kinds of backgrounds. It might for example be escalated to the CEO of an insurance company. And if they don’t have a technical background, which they usually don’t , they might not understand a far too technical report.

In other words, simplification is the key to a good report.

So are you saying that I should not include technical data in my report?

Of course you should. Telling a story that anyone can understand is really important. But it is also important to include things like hash values, time stamps, assets, OSINT data, ip addresses and more.

You need all this information to make the evidence legal from a forensics point of view. But all this is something which could be included in the appendix since it is not important for the actual story.

– A CEO for example doesn’t want to read all that. They expect that if you present them with evidence, you have already done everything needed to make it legally valid, says Dario.

how to write a forensic court report

Writing guidelines for a digital forensic report: What should be included and how should it be structured?

This is not a simple question. What should be included in the report depends on what kind of investigation you are working on.

– The purpose of the report can vary. Myself for example work in different fields, like open source intelligence, brand protection investigation and digital forensics investigations. Every type of activity has different report structures and types of information that should be included in the report, says Dario.

So, it is not possible to give a one-solutions-fits-all structure.

But here is an example of a structure which Dario follows when working with OSINT investigations.

The first four steps are where you are telling the story. These should be written on a maximum of 2 pages and easy for the reader to understand.

  • Scope including: requested by/provided by/date of receipt/type of activity.
  • Executive Summary : A summary of the activities completed including a brief analysis and an image that gives you an overview of the investigation. Like a map, a link chart or an image of the investigated entity. An executive summary should not be longer than one page.
  • Proposed Next Steps : 3 or 4 sentences based on what was found in the investigation, give examples on things to do next. It could be something like filing a criminal complaint.
  • The investigation itself , meaning the story behind the investigation and how the evidence was identified and validated. In this part the evidence needs to be related to the story so the reader is able to understand why that information was reported and documented.

Here is an example on how this first part could be written. This is of course a fake investigation since we can´t share a real one.

  • Date (receipt): 01.06.2021
  • Provided by: Ray KROC
  • Provided via: email on May 30th, 2021
  • Investigation Task: Asset tracing of PERSONS (focus on real estate in Rome, Italy)

The investigation is focused on asset tracing, with a particular attention to real estate properties about the following two Italian citizens:

  • Mr. Mario ROSSI
  • Ms. Anna VERDI

Executive Summary

The scope of the investigation was to identify real estate properties connected to the above- listed subjects of investigation. Mr. Mario ROSSI is the only subject who has several properties near Rome (RM).

All subjects are linked through Facebook friendships, and they all belong to the committee “Pizza Forever”. Mr. ROSSI has political experience as councilman of the Municipality of Rome (RM) with the party MOVIMENTO PIZZA 4ALL (MP4A) and a respectable curriculum vitae as a “pizzaiolo” in Italy, USA, and Japan.

All subjects seem to have sympathy for the slow food cause and to the pizza party. They also joined other committees against the Chicago Pizza and new fast foods franchise in Rome. Ms VERDI and Mr. ROSSI seems to have brought a civil action against MacPizza for damaging the image of the Roman Pizza in Chicago.

Proposed Next Steps

It is suggested to have a local P.I. to conduct a HUMINT investigation to better understand the connections between the Subjects of the investigation, the party MOVIMENTO PIZZA 4ALL (MP4A), the Italian food association named “Pizza Forever”, and other committees such as “No MAC Pizza”, “No Burger Pizza”, “No Pizza No Party”, etc.

Investigation

The data collected during the investigation was identified on Italian Public Registries (such as the Cadastral Registry or the Civil Registry), private Italian databases, with primary research completed by a local P.I. over the phone and secondary research using OSINT techniques on open (such as Search Engines and online Newspaper) and deep web (such as Social Networks) resources.

The next 9 parts are a bit more technical. These parts are also important to validate your story written on the first two pages.

1.Investigated person/company data (data identified on public registries)

A summary table which includes data used to identify the person or the company. The information to include here are:

  • Person: First and last name, Alias name, Marital status, Date and place of birth, Nationality, IDs, Photo, Address, Residency, Phone number(s), email(s),
  • Company: Company Name, VAT number, Registered Office, Secondary address(s), Telephone number(s), Fax number(s), Certified Email, Secondary Email(s), Website(s), Company Type, Date of Establishment, Company Registration #, Date of Registration, Administrator(s), Board of Auditor (BOA), Shareholder(s), Share(s) / Participation(s).

2. Financial Information

Data identified on private registries if available. Bank Account(s) Registered, Bankruptcy / Seizure(s) / Legal Action(s)

Data identified on private registries if available. Real Estate properties, vehicles, boats, etc.

4. Employment

Data identified on private registries if available and/or Social Networks (LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook, etc.)

5. OSINT Data

Every piece of validated intelligence identified via OSINT techniques on open/deep, such as Social Networks or proprietary databases, etc.

6. OSINT Map

Every piece of validated intelligence identified via OSINT techniques and georeferenced

7. Media Research

Data identified on local newspaper or databases which aggregate local newspapers that do not have an electronic version

Data identified via Human Intelligence such as results of an investigation from a private investigator, surveillance, a source of confidential information, etc.

9. Due Diligence/OSINT analysis

The analysis of all evidence reported in step 1-8

And then for the last part of the report Darios adds:

  • Relationship graph (Link Analysis & Timelines)
  • Research sources
  • Collected Data

how to write a forensic court report

What should be avoided when writing a digital forensic report?

One thing that should be avoided is including too much information not related to the investigation. If the report is too long with irrelevant facts, no one will read it. The same applies if the report is too technical.

– We need to understand the final recipient of the report. I am not a writer myself. I have a structure which helps me to focus on important information. So when I write a report, I already know what is important to include, and what’s not, says Dario.

Don’t do anything illegal when collecting evidence

When writing a report it is important to do it in an objective way.

– At the end of the day, you are not a judge and a report is not a place for opinions, especially when related to digital forensics investigation or data collected on the open web. Your report should be based on experience, access, legal activities and stated facts, says Dario.

When it comes to legal activities it can vary depending on which organisations you work for or what country you are in.

In some jurisdictions it is a crime to do pretexting or to create a sockpuppet to interact with someone on the Social Network. Only a law enforcement agency should create sockpuppet when authorized by a public prosecutor

One thing is to observe, another thing is to interact and that is something you should always have in mind when collecting evidence.

– You need to do everything in a legal way. If your report is to be used in court, and you have collected it in an illegal way, you could jeopardize the entire investigation and potentially go to jail, says Dario.

This even applies to law enforcement.

– Not even law enforcement is above the law. If they contact someone in an illegal way, they could for example be accused of being provocators. And if something bad happens because of their actions, they can be prosecuted and evidence can be removed because they were acquired illegally, even if they are the law enforcement themselves, says Dario.

So in order to not make any mistakes, make sure you know what’s legal and what’s not in the country you are operating in.

how to write a forensic court report

3 tips for making the report process more effective

To wrap this up we asked Dario to give us his three best tips to make reports more efficient.

This is what he told us.

  • Take structured notes of your findings as your investigation progresses. This makes it easy to just copy and paste information into the final report.
  • Using a tool such as Discovry helps in taking notes, preserving evidence and conducting audit trails while you are performing an investigation. If not using Discovry it means doing all this manually. Manually means losing time, which ultimately means losing money and for me this is a waste. Using dedicated tools helps a lot.
  • Simplification is key. Do not make things more complex than they are. You don’t know who the final recipient is and if you make things too complex or technical, they might not be able to understand the report.

We hope that you found this article useful.

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  • Forensic Psychology

The Forensic Psychology Report - How to Do One

The Forensic Psychology Report - How to Do One

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