Risk and Danger Assessment in Civil Law: Technical Instructions in Forensic Psychology

Abstract

The assessment of risk and dangerousness, traditionally restricted to Criminal Law, has unique and often neglected relevance in Civil Law, especially in Family Courts. This article provides the theoretical and legal foundations to justify the need for complete psychological and psychiatric evaluations, based on dimensional models such as the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HI-TOP), in cases of parental alienation, child sexual abuse and emotional abandonment. The work presents robust legal theses, based on the Federal Constitution, the Statute of Children and Adolescents and the Civil Code, demonstrating that the investigation of the structural risk profile of the parents is imperative to the realization of the principle of the best interests of the child.