Children and the legal process: Views from a Mental Health Clinic

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Abstract
The article reports on a pilot study carried out at a London mental health clinic during which child psychiatrists and child psychotherapists were interviewed about their experiences of and attitudes towards the courts and legal system. Thepurpose of the interviews was to determine whether evidence existed to support the view of child welfare science and law as two separate, self-referential discourses. During the interviews the mental health professionals expressed serious concerns about the way in which the legal system operated in children's cases and of the roles that they were obliged to play within that system. They emphasised the game-like nature of the process which did little to promote children's interests. The interviews gave some support to the notion of separate discourses by drawing uttention to the conceptual gap that exists between the perspectives of child mental health specialists and lawyers-a conclusion which does not augur well for the introduction of the Children Act 1989.

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