Competency Restoration: An Examination of the Differences Between Defendants Predicted Restorable and Not Restorable to Competency
Tóm tắt
According to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Jackson v. Indiana (1972), examiners must determine if a defendant has “substantial” probability of regaining competency through treatment “in the foreseeable future.” Previous research has indicated that, given the low base rate of defendants unable to be restored to competency, examiners are relatively poor at predicting which defendants will regain competency. Determining the characteristics of not restorable incompetent defendants and restorable incompetent defendants is a necessary first step toward improving examiners' ability to predict a defendant's likelihood of regaining competency. This study examined the competency evaluation reports of 468 defendants evaluated for competency to stand trial. Incompetent defendants significantly differed from competent defendants with regard to age, employment status, ethnicity, criminal charges, and psychiatric diagnosis. Few significant differences existed between defendants predicted restorable and those predicted not restorable by mental health examiners—the differences that did exist were related mainly to nonpsychiatric variables.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Adebimpe, V. R. (1994). Race, racism, and epidemiological surveys. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 45, 27–31.
Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 11.3 (c)(2)(i–v) (1991).
Ashford, J. B. (1987). Assessing treatability in drug offenders. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 6, 139–148.
Bonnie, R. J., & Grisso, T. (2000). Adjudicative competence and youthful offenders. In T. Grisso & R. G. Schwartz (Eds.), Youth on trial: A developmental perspective on juvenile justice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Carbonell, J. L., Heilburn, K., & Friedman, F. L. (1992). Predicting who will regain trial competency: Initial promise unfulfilled. Forensic Reports, 5, 67–76.
Cruise, K., & Rogers, R. (1998). An analysis of competency to stand trial: An integration of case law and clinical knowledge. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 16, 35–50.
Cuneo, D. J., & Brelje, T. B. (1984). Predicting probability of attaining fitness to stand trial. Psychological Reports, 55, 35–39.
Dusky v. United States, 362 U.S. 402 (1960).
Golding, S. L. (1992). Studies of incompetent defendants: Research and social policy implications. Forensic Reports, 5, 77–83.
Hart, S. D., & Hare, R. D. (1992). Predicting fitness to stand trial: The relative power of demographic, criminal, and clinical variables. Forensic Reports, 5, 53–65.
Hoge, S. K., Bonnie, R. J., Poythress, N., Monahan, J., Eisenberg, M., & Feucht-Haviar, T. (1997). The MacArthur Adjudicative Competence Study: Development and validation of a research instrument. Law and Human Behavior, 21, 141–179.
Jackson v. Indiana, 406 U.S. 715 (1972).
Meehl, P. E., & Rosen, A. (1955). Antecedent probability and the efficiency of psychometric signs, patterns, and cutting scores. Psychological Bulletin, 52, 194–216.
Melton, G. B., Petrila, J., Poythress, N. G., & Slobogin, C. (1997). Competency to stand trial, psychological evaluations for the courts: A handbook for mental health professional and lawyers (2nd ed., pp. 119–155). New York: Guilford Press.
Mowbray, C. T. (1979). A study of patients treated as incompetent to stand trial. Social Psychiatry, 14, 31–39.
Nicholson, R. A., & Kugler, K. E. (1991). Competent and incompetent criminal defendants: A quantitative review of comparative research. Psychological Bulletin, 109, 355–370.
Nicholson, R. A., & McNulty, J. L. (1992). Outcome of hospitalization for defendants found incompetent to stand trial. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 10, 371–383.
Pendleton, L. (1980). Treatment of persons found incompetent to stand trial. American Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 1098–1100.
Robins, L. N., & Reiger, D. A. (1991). Psychiatric disorders in America. New York: Free Press.
Roesch, R., & Golding, S. (1980). Competency to stand trial. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois.
Roesch, R., Zapf, P. A., Golding, S. L., & Skeem, J. L. (1999). Defining and assessing competency to stand trial. In A. K. Hess & I. B. Weiner (Eds.), The handbook of forensic psychology (2nd ed., pp. 327–350). New York: Wiley.
Rogers, R., Gillis, J. R., Dickens, S. E., & Webster, C. D. (1988). Treatment recommendations for mentally disordered offenders: More than roulette? Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 6, 487–495.
Rogers, R., Gillis, R. R., McMain, S., & Dickens, S. E. (1988). Fitness evaluations: A retrospective study of clinical, legal, and sociodemographic variables. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 20, 192–199.
Warren J. L., Fitch, W. L., Dietz, P. E. & Rosenfeld, B. D. (1991). Criminal offense, psychiatric diagnosis, and psychological opinion: An analysis of 894 pretrial referrals. Bulletin of American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, 20, 63–69.
Zapf, P. A. (1998). An investigation of the construct of competence in a criminal and civil context: A comparison of the FIT, the MacCAT-CA, and the MacCAT-T. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
Zapf, P. A., Hubbard, K. L., Galloway, V. A., Cox, M., & Ronan, K. A. (2002). An investigation of discrepancies between forensic examiners and the courts in decisions about competency. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Zapf, P. A., & Roesch, R. (1998). Fitness to stand trial: Characteristics of remands since the 1992 Criminal Code amendments. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 43, 287–293.