[Recommendations for terminating child custody--reasons and grounds in 30 expert decisions]

In a retrospective analysis 30 expert opinions on the right of visitation, which recommend the exclusion of this right for the non-custodial parent, are evaluated. These cases represent 23% of the expert opinions concerning the right of visitation that have been given by the department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the University of Tübingen between 1991 and 1994. Focusing on the decisive argument for the expert to exclude the right of visitation, it became apparent that in 40% of the cases the will of the child was the determining factor, followed by sustained tension between the parents in 33% of the cases. Emotional neglect, (continuous) abuse and maltreatment (12%) as well as offences against the clause of good behaviour (Wohlverhaltensklausel) were of significant smaller influence on the decision. And although 61% of the children have been classified as psychological disturbed, only in 5% of the cases this diagnosis was of importance.