"[50]
Many courts of domestic relations which now exercise equity powers, such
as ordering that a man remain away from home or that a wife allow her
husband to see his children at stated times, do so without actual legal
warrant and subject at any time to appeal of counsel. The conferring of
equity powers on courts of domestic relations is a form of protection
both to the court and to its clients which social workers should stand
ready to work for.
Juvenile courts have in the main outstripped the domestic relations
courts in the use of physicians and psychiatrists. The best examples of
both these courts have, however, facilities for the making of physical
examinations and mental tests, where necessary, before adjudication.
Judge Hoffman says that the fact that so many cases in courts of
domestic relations disclose abnormal or perverted sex habits, makes
important the services of a psychiatrist accustomed to diagnosing these
conditions.[51]
In most states the jurisdiction of the courts of domestic relations
should be extended and co-ordinated. Few states escape some glaring
inconsistencies in the laws governing desertion and abandonment. There
is, for instance, much confusion between states as to whether a woman
whose husband brings her to a strange city and there deserts her must
prosecute him in the city where their home is or where the desertion
took place.
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