August 7, 2025 • 11 mins
On this episode, Kirk Stange discusses psychosexual evaluations, which are detailed assessments used in child custody cases when sexual abuse is alleged or a parent is considered a risk. They involve clinical interviews, psychological testing, and sometimes physiological measurements to determine the individual's sexual behaviors and potential risk. He also discusses how courts utilize the results to decide parenting time, potentially limiting or supervising visits if concerns are found.
This episode is based on an article on our Family Law Headquarters blog titled What is a psychosexual evaluation?
To learn more about our Wichita, Kansas divorce attorneys or to schedule an initial consultation, call 855-805-0595 or email info@stangelawfirm.com.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-law-talk--6410781/support.
This episode is based on an article on our Family Law Headquarters blog titled What is a psychosexual evaluation?
To learn more about our Wichita, Kansas divorce attorneys or to schedule an initial consultation, call 855-805-0595 or email info@stangelawfirm.com.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/family-law-talk--6410781/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Family Law Talk. Familylaw Talk presented by Kirk
Stangy of Stangy Law Firm PC. Stangy Law Firm is
a multi state family law firm. Now here's your host,
Kirk Stangy.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome to Family Law Talk. We have an interesting topic today.
The topic is psycho sexual evaluations and chocusting matters. And
this topic today is based on an article on our
blog Famlawheadquarters dot com data July twenty second, twenty twenty
five and the title of that article is what is
(00:39):
a psychosexual evaluation? So as a follow up to the
episode today, go on over to Famallawheadquarters dot com and
read this blog article for more information. But let's go
ahead and jump into the topic at hand. Sadly, in
some chowcusting matters, sexual abuse allegations can arise. One party
might allege that the other parent his sexual abuse the children,
(01:01):
or maybe that they've sexually abused other children and that
they could pose a risk to the kids who are
part of the child custume matter. Again, these are sad cases.
These are cases that nobody wants to see. Obviously, this
topic is one that obviously causes grief and anguish and
(01:22):
sorrow on the part of the individuals who are involved
in these types of cases. I mean, these are not
fun cases for attorneys to Okay and candidly, in some cases,
a party might be falsely accused of sexual abuse, so
maybe they didn't even do it, or it could be
a situation where maybe they had criminal charges against them,
(01:42):
but maybe they were acquitted of the criminal charges and
they still want to have visitation in contact with their kids.
But then the whole issue comes into play, which is
are they a risk to the kids and if they
were around the kids in an unsupervised manner, would be
a risk of sexual abuse. And in some cases, one
(02:02):
parent might alleges that the other parents shouldn't have any
visitation at all. If they think that they've committed sexual abuse,
then their position might be that the other parents shouldn't
be around the kids at all. Okay, these are tough cases.
These are difficult cases records, and the topic is the
concept of a psycho sexual evaluation. So if you're listening
(02:24):
to this episode today, you're probably wondering, what is this
and why is this important? Okay, These are niche psychological
evaluations that can be conducted on parties except that they're
a little bit different. The whole issue with a psycho
sexual evaluation is this, which is ultimately to come to
(02:46):
conclusion about whether or not a party is a risk
to sexually abuse the children that are part of the
custody case. And so an evaluator is going to go
through these testing methods with whoever the individual is who's
accused of sexual abuse, or maybe again maybe they say, no,
(03:07):
I didn't do this, I was falsely accused of sexual abuse.
I never did this, I didn't do this, and these
allegations are false and they're just really designed to try
to keep me away from the kids. Okay, So in
some of these custly cases where these sexual abuse allegations
are out there, and take a case where there's really
no tangible evidence of it, right, and again this is
(03:32):
a thorny topic. This can be very much in the weeds, Okay.
But in some cases with sexual abuse, there could be
physical trauma and sometimes there could be a rape kit
or something like that. Then it can be objectively shown
whether or not somebody's been subjected to some kind of
sexual abuse. But candidly, in some cases, if there was
(03:55):
a rape kit at all, it came back negative, and
maybe there's no signs abuse. There's no physical harm that
a doctor or anybody could find to really prove that
it happened, and so this gets to be thorny. But look,
a psycho sexual evaluation, what this is is this would
typically be a PhD, so a psychologist somebody who has
(04:20):
this kind of specific background in training, and what they
do is have an individual take psychological tests, okay, and
these psychological tests can vary, so we're talking paper pencil tests,
and they do various objective testing. They would say, now,
some are critique it and say it's not really objective,
(04:40):
it's subjective, but those who are in favor of these
testings typically say that no, this is objective. Okay. So
you're talking paper pencil test where there's scores in these
tests and show a propensity for somebody to be somebody
who might commit sexual abuse were show no propensity, okay.
(05:02):
The other part of the psychosexual evaluation is typically a
background history, So the psychologist is going to meet the
individual who's been accused of sexual abuse, go through a
detailed sexual history background. Sometimes they'll even have them take
an intelligence test or what sometimes called an IQ test
which can measure in individual's intellectual abilities. And again it
(05:27):
can help the evaluate to determine is this individual somebody
who's a risk to commit sexual abuse or is this
somebody who's not a risk at all, and maybe somebody
who's been falsely accused. Okay, there could be other sort
of unsavory things that can take place at this psychosexual evaluation.
(05:51):
For example, in male subjects. Okay, they can measure arousal.
And again this is thorny. This is in the and
I don't want to be too specific here, but ultimately
there can be stimuli shown to individuals and then the
issue is is does the individual become aroused of that
(06:12):
certain stimuli? And based on that, and this we're talking
particularly with males and so as part of the stimuli,
if there was an arousal to a certain stimuli, then
that could be relied upon buying an evaluator to say, hey,
this individual perhaps is a risk to commit sexual abuse
because there's arousal to stimulus that shouldn't arouse an individual
(06:36):
something to that degree. Okay, So these are psychosexual evaluations
in terms of more specifically how these can impact a
child custy case. I mean the reality is they can
have a big impact on a child custic case. Okay,
If an evaluator believes that an individual has committed sexual
abuse in the past, that there are risk to do
(06:57):
it in the future, and they come to that inclusion
based on the paper pencil test, based on the history,
based on the IQ test, and then the arouse of
the stimulus and whatever else they rely upon, then the
reality is that an individual's access to their kids could
be limited. Right. In some circumstances, they might just simply
(07:19):
get supervised visitation. They might not be left alone with
the kids. In other instances, where the kids have been
victimized and then having contact with that parent who's victimized
them could cause great harm, an individual might have no
visitation with that parent whatsoever. Okay. On the flip end,
(07:39):
if somebody has been falsely accused and they've never done
this before, right, these are just false allegations that the
other parent is raising to try to keep an individual
away from the kids. Then if the results of the
evaluation is that this individual is no risk to the
kids and that this individ never committed sexual abuse in
(08:02):
the past and there's just no reason to believe that
they would do in the future, and that these are
just simply false allegations. And sometimes you can also piggyback
it on the lack of physical evidence. Right, maybe a
rape kiss which I talked about before, took place, came
back negative and there's no other physical evidence to show
(08:22):
that this actually took place. And then you piggyback it
with the psychosexual evaluation that shows that an individual's no risk.
Then this can result in an individual getting normal visitation
with their kids, right, not supervised, not no contact, but
normal visitation with their kids. And in some cases where
the other parties raising false allegations of sexual abuse just
(08:46):
to keep a parent away when it didn't take place,
it could result in the parent who's been falsely accused
actually getting soul costly of the kids. And that could
be so physical or so legal, you name it. You know,
particularly where a parent is raising me false allegations and
they and they know, or there's a reasonable degree of
certainty that they know these allegations are false. They're just
(09:08):
raising it in a bad faith manner in order to
keep a parent away all right. Again, you know, some
critique of psycho sexual evaluations is while while some people
would argue that a lot of is testing is objective.
Some would say it's subjective that different psychologists could, you know,
do the evaluation on a particular individual and come up
(09:31):
with different results. So there's some subjectivity here, you know.
One of the other big drawbacks of psycho sexual evaluations
is that if somebody omits or withholds material information to
the individual doing the evaluation, or they're dishonest and they're
not candid and they don't tell things that they should tell,
(09:51):
then this can obviously skew the results as well, and
so that can be a potential weakness as well. Okay, again,
this is a nasty topic. This isn't really a fun topic.
Hopefully most of the listeners never have to experience these
types of cases, but the reality is they do happen
circumstances where sexual abuse has taken place. These are terrible cases.
(10:13):
And then there are cases where individuals have been falsely
abused and there's been no sexual abuse at all. So
I wanted to cover this topic today because it does happen,
and these can be gut wrenching types of cases for
individuals going through it. All right, as a follow up
to the episode today, going over to Familylawheadquarters dot com.
Read the article titled what is a psychosexual the valuation?
(10:36):
The date is July twenty second, twenty twenty five. This
will give you more information on this topic. But thanks
for tuning in today. Stay tuned our next episode coming up.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Thank you for listening to Family Law Talk with Kirk Stangy.
Is it Stangy Lawfirm dot com for more about today's
topic or to put Stangy Lawfirm to work for your
family today. The choice if a lawyer is an important
decision and should not be based solely on advertisements. Either
the Supreme Court of Missouri or Illinois reviews or approves
certifying organizations or specialist designations. The information you obtained in
(11:11):
this podcast is not, nor is it intended to be
legal advice. You should consult an attorney for advice regarding
your individual situation. We invite you to contact us and
welcome your calls, letters, and electronic mail. Contacting us does
not create an attorney client relationship. Please do not send
any confidential information to us until such time as an
attorney client relationship has been established, as the results afford
(11:33):
no guarantee of future results in every case is different
and must be judged on its own merits. Kirkstangy is
responsible for the Content Headquarters Office one twenty South Central Avenue,
Sweet four fifty, Clayton, Missouri six three one oh five.
Kirk Stangy is licensed in Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas
Welcome to Family Law Talk. Familylaw Talk presented by Kirk
Stangy of Stangy Law Firm PC. Stangy Law Firm is
a multi state family law firm. Now here's your host,
Kirk Stangy.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome to Family Law Talk. We have an interesting topic today.
The topic is psycho sexual evaluations and chocusting matters. And
this topic today is based on an article on our
blog Famlawheadquarters dot com data July twenty second, twenty twenty
five and the title of that article is what is
(00:39):
a psychosexual evaluation? So as a follow up to the
episode today, go on over to Famallawheadquarters dot com and
read this blog article for more information. But let's go
ahead and jump into the topic at hand. Sadly, in
some chowcusting matters, sexual abuse allegations can arise. One party
might allege that the other parent his sexual abuse the children,
(01:01):
or maybe that they've sexually abused other children and that
they could pose a risk to the kids who are
part of the child custume matter. Again, these are sad cases.
These are cases that nobody wants to see. Obviously, this
topic is one that obviously causes grief and anguish and
(01:22):
sorrow on the part of the individuals who are involved
in these types of cases. I mean, these are not
fun cases for attorneys to Okay and candidly, in some cases,
a party might be falsely accused of sexual abuse, so
maybe they didn't even do it, or it could be
a situation where maybe they had criminal charges against them,
(01:42):
but maybe they were acquitted of the criminal charges and
they still want to have visitation in contact with their kids.
But then the whole issue comes into play, which is
are they a risk to the kids and if they
were around the kids in an unsupervised manner, would be
a risk of sexual abuse. And in some cases, one
(02:02):
parent might alleges that the other parents shouldn't have any
visitation at all. If they think that they've committed sexual abuse,
then their position might be that the other parents shouldn't
be around the kids at all. Okay, these are tough cases.
These are difficult cases records, and the topic is the
concept of a psycho sexual evaluation. So if you're listening
(02:24):
to this episode today, you're probably wondering, what is this
and why is this important? Okay, These are niche psychological
evaluations that can be conducted on parties except that they're
a little bit different. The whole issue with a psycho
sexual evaluation is this, which is ultimately to come to
(02:46):
conclusion about whether or not a party is a risk
to sexually abuse the children that are part of the
custody case. And so an evaluator is going to go
through these testing methods with whoever the individual is who's
accused of sexual abuse, or maybe again maybe they say, no,
(03:07):
I didn't do this, I was falsely accused of sexual abuse.
I never did this, I didn't do this, and these
allegations are false and they're just really designed to try
to keep me away from the kids. Okay, So in
some of these custly cases where these sexual abuse allegations
are out there, and take a case where there's really
no tangible evidence of it, right, and again this is
(03:32):
a thorny topic. This can be very much in the weeds, Okay.
But in some cases with sexual abuse, there could be
physical trauma and sometimes there could be a rape kit
or something like that. Then it can be objectively shown
whether or not somebody's been subjected to some kind of
sexual abuse. But candidly, in some cases, if there was
(03:55):
a rape kit at all, it came back negative, and
maybe there's no signs abuse. There's no physical harm that
a doctor or anybody could find to really prove that
it happened, and so this gets to be thorny. But look,
a psycho sexual evaluation, what this is is this would
typically be a PhD, so a psychologist somebody who has
(04:20):
this kind of specific background in training, and what they
do is have an individual take psychological tests, okay, and
these psychological tests can vary, so we're talking paper pencil tests,
and they do various objective testing. They would say, now,
some are critique it and say it's not really objective,
(04:40):
it's subjective, but those who are in favor of these
testings typically say that no, this is objective. Okay. So
you're talking paper pencil test where there's scores in these
tests and show a propensity for somebody to be somebody
who might commit sexual abuse were show no propensity, okay.
(05:02):
The other part of the psychosexual evaluation is typically a
background history, So the psychologist is going to meet the
individual who's been accused of sexual abuse, go through a
detailed sexual history background. Sometimes they'll even have them take
an intelligence test or what sometimes called an IQ test
which can measure in individual's intellectual abilities. And again it
(05:27):
can help the evaluate to determine is this individual somebody
who's a risk to commit sexual abuse or is this
somebody who's not a risk at all, and maybe somebody
who's been falsely accused. Okay, there could be other sort
of unsavory things that can take place at this psychosexual evaluation.
(05:51):
For example, in male subjects. Okay, they can measure arousal.
And again this is thorny. This is in the and
I don't want to be too specific here, but ultimately
there can be stimuli shown to individuals and then the
issue is is does the individual become aroused of that
(06:12):
certain stimuli? And based on that, and this we're talking
particularly with males and so as part of the stimuli,
if there was an arousal to a certain stimuli, then
that could be relied upon buying an evaluator to say, hey,
this individual perhaps is a risk to commit sexual abuse
because there's arousal to stimulus that shouldn't arouse an individual
(06:36):
something to that degree. Okay, So these are psychosexual evaluations
in terms of more specifically how these can impact a
child custy case. I mean the reality is they can
have a big impact on a child custic case. Okay,
If an evaluator believes that an individual has committed sexual
abuse in the past, that there are risk to do
(06:57):
it in the future, and they come to that inclusion
based on the paper pencil test, based on the history,
based on the IQ test, and then the arouse of
the stimulus and whatever else they rely upon, then the
reality is that an individual's access to their kids could
be limited. Right. In some circumstances, they might just simply
(07:19):
get supervised visitation. They might not be left alone with
the kids. In other instances, where the kids have been
victimized and then having contact with that parent who's victimized
them could cause great harm, an individual might have no
visitation with that parent whatsoever. Okay. On the flip end,
(07:39):
if somebody has been falsely accused and they've never done
this before, right, these are just false allegations that the
other parent is raising to try to keep an individual
away from the kids. Then if the results of the
evaluation is that this individual is no risk to the
kids and that this individ never committed sexual abuse in
(08:02):
the past and there's just no reason to believe that
they would do in the future, and that these are
just simply false allegations. And sometimes you can also piggyback
it on the lack of physical evidence. Right, maybe a
rape kiss which I talked about before, took place, came
back negative and there's no other physical evidence to show
(08:22):
that this actually took place. And then you piggyback it
with the psychosexual evaluation that shows that an individual's no risk.
Then this can result in an individual getting normal visitation
with their kids, right, not supervised, not no contact, but
normal visitation with their kids. And in some cases where
the other parties raising false allegations of sexual abuse just
(08:46):
to keep a parent away when it didn't take place,
it could result in the parent who's been falsely accused
actually getting soul costly of the kids. And that could
be so physical or so legal, you name it. You know,
particularly where a parent is raising me false allegations and
they and they know, or there's a reasonable degree of
certainty that they know these allegations are false. They're just
(09:08):
raising it in a bad faith manner in order to
keep a parent away all right. Again, you know, some
critique of psycho sexual evaluations is while while some people
would argue that a lot of is testing is objective.
Some would say it's subjective that different psychologists could, you know,
do the evaluation on a particular individual and come up
(09:31):
with different results. So there's some subjectivity here, you know.
One of the other big drawbacks of psycho sexual evaluations
is that if somebody omits or withholds material information to
the individual doing the evaluation, or they're dishonest and they're
not candid and they don't tell things that they should tell,
(09:51):
then this can obviously skew the results as well, and
so that can be a potential weakness as well. Okay, again,
this is a nasty topic. This isn't really a fun topic.
Hopefully most of the listeners never have to experience these
types of cases, but the reality is they do happen
circumstances where sexual abuse has taken place. These are terrible cases.
(10:13):
And then there are cases where individuals have been falsely
abused and there's been no sexual abuse at all. So
I wanted to cover this topic today because it does happen,
and these can be gut wrenching types of cases for
individuals going through it. All right, as a follow up
to the episode today, going over to Familylawheadquarters dot com.
Read the article titled what is a psychosexual the valuation?
(10:36):
The date is July twenty second, twenty twenty five. This
will give you more information on this topic. But thanks
for tuning in today. Stay tuned our next episode coming up.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Thank you for listening to Family Law Talk with Kirk Stangy.
Is it Stangy Lawfirm dot com for more about today's
topic or to put Stangy Lawfirm to work for your
family today. The choice if a lawyer is an important
decision and should not be based solely on advertisements. Either
the Supreme Court of Missouri or Illinois reviews or approves
certifying organizations or specialist designations. The information you obtained in
(11:11):
this podcast is not, nor is it intended to be
legal advice. You should consult an attorney for advice regarding
your individual situation. We invite you to contact us and
welcome your calls, letters, and electronic mail. Contacting us does
not create an attorney client relationship. Please do not send
any confidential information to us until such time as an
attorney client relationship has been established, as the results afford
(11:33):
no guarantee of future results in every case is different
and must be judged on its own merits. Kirkstangy is
responsible for the Content Headquarters Office one twenty South Central Avenue,
Sweet four fifty, Clayton, Missouri six three one oh five.
Kirk Stangy is licensed in Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!