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| Preface | |
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| The Debate About Children's Voices | |
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| The Protective Approach to Children | |
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| Views on the Capacities of Children | |
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| Children as Participants | |
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| Understanding children as social actors | |
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| Understanding children as citizens | |
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| The Pitfalls of Listening to Children | |
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| Children may be placed in the middle of their parents' conflicts | |
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| The risk of undue influence | |
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| Children may be given the decision-making authority that the parents need to exercise | |
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| Children's voices may provide an excuse for adults to avoid hard decisions | |
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| The risk that children's voices will be used to facilitate irresponsible adult decisions | |
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| Different Levels and Forms of Participation | |
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| The Purpose of this Book | |
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| The Research | |
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| The Importance of Multiple Perspectives | |
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| The importance of children's and parents' views | |
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| The importance of professionals' views judges, lawyers and welfare professionals | |
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| Research Method | |
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| The participants and the interviews | |
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| Practical and Ethical Issues in Research with Children | |
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| Consent for children's participation | |
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| Confidentiality and privacy of children's responses | |
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| Format of interviews with children | |
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| The Different Ways of Hearing the Voice of the Child | |
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| Legislative Principles for Participation | |
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| Child-inclusive Mediation | |
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| Family Reports | |
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| Child Representatives | |
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| Children as Parties to Proceedings | |
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| Judicial Interviewing | |
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| Evidence from Children | |
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| The Filtering of Children's Voices | |
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| Children's and Parents' Views of Children's Participation | |
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| Preconditions for Children's Participation | |
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| Children's Views | |
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| Children's reasons for wanting to have a say | |
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| Children's reasons for not wanting to have a say | |
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| Children's actual and perceived involvement | |
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| How much say did children want? | |
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| Having a say and the fairness of the arrangements | |
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| Parents' Views | |
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| Should children have a say? | |
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| Age, maturity and parental influence | |
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| Parents' views on the benefits of children having a say | |
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| Children's and Parents' Views Compared | |
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| Similarities and differences in children's and parents' views | |
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| Differences between those who had experienced contested proceedings and those who had not | |
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| Voice and Choice in Children's Participation | |
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| Professional Views of Children's Participation | |
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| The Importance of Professional Perspectives | |
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| Family Lawyers | |
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| Age, maturity and parental influence | |
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| Workability and children's happiness | |
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| Protection from participation | |
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| Children as decision-makers | |
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| Children's participation as about choices between adult positions | |
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| Changing the system | |
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| Mediators and Counsellors | |
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| Enlightenment | |
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| Empowerment | |
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| The involvement of children in mediation | |
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| Workability | |
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| Therapeutic benefits | |
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| Concerns about pressure and manipulation | |
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| Age, maturity and self-determination | |
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| The risks of involving children in the litigation process | |
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| Judges | |
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| Children's voices in the context of all the evidence | |
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| Evaluating children's wishes | |
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| Lawyers v Welfare Professionals on Children's Participation | |
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| Participation, Decision-making and Parental Influence | |
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| Children's Involvement in The Litigation Process | |
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| The Voice of the Child in Family Reports | |
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| Entering the child's world | |
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| Assessing the child's views | |
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| Family reports and children's secrets | |
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| Following up on outcomes | |
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| The Role of Child Representatives | |
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| Meeting with the child | |
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| Ascertaining the views of the child | |
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| Representing the child | |
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| Respecting confidentiality | |
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| Advising the child | |
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| Counsellors, Lawyers and the Interpretation of Children's Voices | |
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| Parents' Views | |
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| What did parents think of the family report process? | |
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| What did parents think of the children's lawyers? | |
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| Children's Views | |
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| What did children think of the family report process? | |
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| What did children think of their legal representative? | |
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| Filtering, Confidentiality and Feedback Mechanisms | |
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| Judicial Conversations With Children | |
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| The Views of the Children | |
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| Who would be the best person to talk with? | |
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| Specific questions on talking with judges in chambers | |
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| Children's reasons for wanting to talk with the judge | |
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| Children's reasons for not wanting to talk with the judge | |
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| Parents' Views | |
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| Parents' reasons for favouring judges talking with children | |
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| Parents' reasons for not favouring judges talking with children | |
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| The preferred process | |
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| Professionals in the Family Law System | |
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| Areas of agreement | |
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| Objections to judicial conversations with children | |
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| Judges' experiences of talking with children in parenting disputes | |
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| The benefits of talking with children in chambers | |
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| Truth, Justice and Due Process | |
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| Towards a More Responsive Legal System | |
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| The Consensus on Children's Participation | |
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| The Benefits and Risks of Children's Participation | |
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| Why listen to children? | |
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| The risks of listening to children | |
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| Paradoxes in views of children's participation | |
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| Improving Children's Participation | |
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| Distinguish between voice and choice | |
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| Redefine the significance of age and maturity | |
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| Explore children's perspectives, not their 'wishes' | |
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| Distinguish between different kinds of decisions on which children's views may be invited | |
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| Follow certain guidelines about judicial interviews | |
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| Consider children's views with the aid of social-science expertise | |
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| Move beyond the focus on hearing children in trials | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| References | |
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| Index | |