ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Forensic and Legal Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1668693
This article is part of the Research TopicUnderstanding Stigma and Bias in Legal and Forensic Psychology: Challenges and SolutionsView all articles
Court-Appointed Expert Consultation in Italy: An Ethnographic Study of Parents' Beliefs, Expectations, and Experiences
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Padua, Padua, Italy
- 2Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology, Padova, Italy
- 3Institute of Psychology and Psychotherapy, Milano, Italy
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Abstract This study focuses on the process of Court-Appointed Expert Consultation (Consulenza Tecnica d'Ufficio, CTU) that parents involved in high-conflict separations must undergo. The CTU is an expert psychological assessment commissioned by the court to assist legal proceedings, aimed at providing judges with essential information for well-founded decisions. Given that this is a relatively new but rapidly growing field 2 in Italy, also considering the increasing divorce rates, specific scientific literature on the subject is still limited. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine in greater depth how separated parents perceive and experience this process, considering the psychological aspects involved, their expectations, their evaluation of the investigation's utility, and the motivations underlying their request. Through qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews, the results highlight that participants view the CTU as a useful decision-making tool for the judge, but also as a mediator and guardian of minors.However, parents often confuse the role of the CTU with that of a mediator. Many parents expect a "corrective" CTU for the other parent, based on the idea that the problem lies with the other party. Indeed, while the request primarily arises to protect the children, it is also aimed at countering the other parent. Parents described the process asa demanding but ultimately useful, offering opportunities for reflection and new insights. The CTU is ultimately seen as a "validation" of parental suitability and a tool for vindication, but also as not always resolving family conflicts. We believe these findings can be highly useful for the Courts that initiate the investigation, as well as for all professionals involved, including psychologists, lawyers, and juvenile judges.
Keywords: court-appointed expert consultation, party-appointed expert consultation, Expertise, dispute, conflict, Court, Ethnopsychology
Received: 18 Jul 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Iudici, Rainieri and Fiorini. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Antonio Iudici, antonio.iudici@unipd.it
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