Cognitive Biases and Risk Assessment

Courts view the safety and well-being of children very seriously, and they ask assessors to provide accurate calculations about risks to children based on various risk factors, including parental risk factors. Psychological research has established both that people easily display biases when they make judgements about complex matters, and that certain procedures can be used to minimise biases and to help assessors to make objective computations. This chapter summarises information about biases that can occur when an expert assesses risk to children based on family functioning, and makes recommendations about how biases can be minimised.