Research

Research digests | Key research in family justice | Recently published research reports | Making use of research

In order to develop knowledge and understanding of the working of the Family Justice System, the Council is helping to make research about family justice and other related issues more widely available. The CAFCASS Research Digest (issued quarterly) provides brief summaries of research, mostly relating to the UK, together with links to research reports where they are available on the web.

Research Digests

Research digest 2006 Issue 3 (PDF 178Kb)
Research digest 2006 Issue 2 (PDF 282Kb)
Research digest 2006 Issue 1 (PDF 282Kb)
Research digest 2005 Issue 4 (PDF 130Kb)
Research digest 2005 Issue 3 (PDF 197Kb)
Research digest 2005 Issue 2 (PDF 201Kb)
Research digest 2005 Issue 1 (PDF 284Kb)
Research digest 2004 Issue 4 (PDF 163Kb)
Research digest 2004 Issue 3 (PDF 190Kb)
Research digest 2004 Issue 2 (PDF 225Kb)
Research digest 2004 Issue 1 (PDF 133Kb)
Research digest 2003 Issue 4 (PDF 107Kb)
Research digest 2003 Issue 3 (PDF 62Kb)
Research digest 2003 Issue 2 (PDF 117Kb)
Research digest 2003 Issue 1 (PDF 137Kb)
Research digest 2002 Issue 1 (PDF 57Kb)

Disclaimer

The contents of these pages are provided as an information guide only. Neither CAFCASS nor the Family Justice Council accepts responsibility for any errors, omissions, or misleading statements in the Digest or on any site to which these pages or the Digest is connected. The inclusion of research in the Digest or on this page does not amount to any approval or warranty as to its methods or findings.

Key research in family justice

Child contact with non-resident parents (PDF 113Kb)

Recently published research reports

Care Profiling Study and Research Summary March 2008
Minority ethnic parents, their solicitors and child protection litigation - DCA 2005
- Summary (PDF 46Kb)
- Full report (242 pages, PDF 1Mb)
Intervening in ligigated contact: ideas from other jurisdictions (2005) (PDF 143Kb)

Making use of research

Those seeking to develop arguments or practice based on research should always consider the quality of the research and its applicability.

The quality of the research depends on its design and the care with which it has been completed. Assessing these things requires specialist knowledge, but as a general rule, if research has been published in an academic 'peer-reviewed' journal it will have been subject to such scrutiny. Similarly, research funded by a Research Council eg ESRC, MRC etc, a government department or a major research organisation such as the Nuffield Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Foundation or Leverhulme etc will have been subject to very thorough review.
Research can describe and may go some way to explain the characteristics of particular samples. This can allow some generalisations about the way the system operates or the effects of processes. It rarely provides the basis for determining what will happen in an individual case. When considering how to deal with individuals, research knowledge needs to be considered alongside other information about them, for example their strengths, characters, wishes and feelings, and the other people involved.