Susanne Denham is a psychology professor at George Mason University near Washington, D.C., who has studied how the ability to forgive develops in the first decade of life.

Brian Childs is director of clinical ethics and spiritual care for Shore Health System in the University of Maryland Medical System. He has researched how forgiveness training impacts the mental and physical health of AIDS patients. His dissertation at Princeton Theological Seminary explored forgiveness among preschool children.

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh is executive director and head scientist at Great Ape Trust of Iowa who has studied how youngsters learn forgiveness from caregivers.

Frank Fincham is Eminent Scholar and director of the Family Institute at Florida State University . One of his primary research interests is forgiveness within families, and he has done research and published articles on forgiveness between spouses and between parents and children.

The Home School Legal Defense Association is a conservative Christian political and legal advocacy group. Many child custody disputes with a religious aspect center on home schooling issues.

The American Bar Association’s Center on Children and the Law has a list of staff experts.

The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers is a leading association of practitioners in the field of family law.

Read a Sept. 7, 2009, Wall Street Journal opinion piece that compares and contrasts the custody disputes involving Amanda Kurowski and Rifqa Bary.

Read an April 14, 2008, Christian Science Monitor story describing the thorny issues faced by Texas authorities after more than 400 children were removed from the secluded ranch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.