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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    June 01, 2000

    Wisconsin Lawyer June 2000: Book Reviews 2

     

    Wisconsin Lawyer: June 2000

    Vol. 73, No. 6, June 2000

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    Book Reviews


    This Month's Featured Selections


    Child Custody The Scientific Basis of Child Custody Decisions

    Edited by Robert M. Galatzer-Levy
    & Louis Kraus
    (New York, NY:
    John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1999).
    468 pgs. $85.

    Reviewed by Victor Dana Brooks

    Custody and physical placement cases are among the most difficult handled by the courts. The results of the placement order cannot be predicted, and yet the court has no choice but to make a decision. Judges and lawyers with little relevant training outside the law are asked to assess and make decisions based on testimony of psychologists. The Scientific Basis of Child Custody Decisions is intended to provide a "reliable reference that could clarify thinking about the psychological issues in the case."

    The editors, Robert M. Galatzer-Levy, M.D., of the Institute for Psychoanalysis at the University of Chicago, and Louis Kraus, M.D., of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department at Evanston Hospital, gathered articles written by experts in several areas of psychological study. Their goal is to provide an abstract of currently accepted scientific thinking in the field. Each chapter focuses on a different topic, beginning with legal and ethical issues, and continuing through chapters that analyze childhood and adolescent development and the effects of divorce on that development. The book ends with chapters that address special issues that are sometimes raised: remarriage, adopted children, medically ill children, gay/lesbian relationships, and high conflict divorces.

    Since different authors wrote each chapter, the writing styles vary, but are accessible to the lay person. Each chapter gives a clear statement of the knowledge currently available, the conclusions that might be drawn from that information, and, in most cases, what areas are as yet unexplored or unproven. Each chapter is separately documented, giving sufficient information for additional research. An advocate could easily structure direct or cross examination of a psychologist based on the information contained in the appropriate chapter. In summary, this book is an excellent reference for practitioners who are involved in child custody and physical placement disputes.

    Victor Dana Brooks, Northeastern 1972, practices with Brooks & Martel S.C., Sturgeon Bay.

    Privacy The Limits of Privacy

    By Amitai Etzioni
    (Boulder, CO: Basic Books, 1999).
    280 pgs. $17.50.

    Reviewed by R. Michael Waterman

    In an age when individuals demand more protection of their private records, habits, and lifestyles, George Washington University professor Amitai Etzioni's The Limits of Privacy advances the notion that Americans' individualist sense of unfettered privacy is detrimental to the common good. With carefully limited rights of privacy, society would be a better place to live.

    The Limits of Privacy focuses on Etzioni's communitarian thinking and social philosophy, which is premised on the notion that a good society seeks a carefully crafted balance between individual rights and social responsibilities. Etzioni applies that societal model to five specific societal concerns - HIV testing of infants, sex offender or "Megan's laws," computer encryption keys, government issued personal identification cards, and medical record disclosures.

    For each societal concern, Etzioni compiled an impressive amount of empirical data documenting the nature and extent of particular societal ills and the political efforts intended to alleviate them. According to Etzioni, individual privacy often contributes to the cause of these social problems and it too often inhibits efforts to cure the ills. For example, valuable medical research data could be obtained from private medical records, but an individual's privacy interest in those medical records prohibits dissemination of the data. Similarly, sophisticated computer encryption software allows terrorists, organized crime members, and foreign spies to enjoy unfettered communications and operations in this country, but government authorities do not have the means to decode and decipher the illicit communications. Etzioni suggests that by placing careful limits on an individual's privacy, society as a whole will benefit.

    While The Limits of Privacy discusses some basic constitutional issues that surround privacy, the book primarily focuses on public policy and sociology. The Limits of Privacy is not a legal resource, and most practitioners will find little use for this book in their daily practices. Still, The Limits of Privacy provides a unique and practical look at issues where social concerns and individual privacy collide.

    R. Michael Waterman, Hamline 1995, is an attorney with Mudge Porter Lundeen & Seguin S.C., Hudson, and adjunct professor of law at William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, Minn.


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