Читать книгу Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling - Kenneth S. Pope - Страница 61

We possess authority to change the course of lives when we testify as experts in the civil and criminal courts and through similar judicial or administrative proceedings. Our testimony can help determine whether someone convicted of murder is executed. It can be the deciding factor in whether a parent gains or loses custody of a child. It can shape a jury’s view of whether a defendant was capable of committing a crime, was likely to have committed it, was legally sane at the time the crime was committed or is likely to commit similar crimes in the future. It can lead a jury to believe that an uncle sexually abused a young child or that the child either imagined the abuse or was coached as part of a custody dispute. It can help immigrant and asylum-seeking individuals regularize their status in the United States so they can live and work free from the fear of being separated from their families or deported to countries where their lives may be at risk. Our testimony can convince a jury that the plaintiff is an innocent victim of a needless trauma who is suffering severe and chronic harm or is a chronic liar, gold digger, or malingerer.