Competence to stand trial: Efforts to clarify the concept and improve clinical evaluations of criminal defendants

Current Opinion in Psychiatry

Volumn 12, Issue 6, 1999, Pages 647-651

  Ciccone, J Richard ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER MEDICAL CENTER   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CLINICAL EXAMINATION; COMPETENCE; FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY; HUMAN; LAW; LEGAL ASPECT; MEDICAL LITERATURE; MEDICAL RESEARCH; OFFENDER; PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS; SHORT SURVEY; UNITED STATES;

EID: 0032786097     PISSN: 09517367     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1097/00001504-199911000-00010     Document Type: Short Survey

References (28)

1. 1 Dusky v. United States 362 U.S. 402, 1960.
2. 2 Robey A. Criteria for competency to stand trial: a checklist for psychiatrists. Am J Psychiatry 1965; 122:661-666.
3. 3 McGarry L. Competency to stand trial and mental illness. Aronson: New York; 1974.
4. 4 Godinez v. Moran 509 U.S. 389, 1993.
5. 5 Cooper DK, Grisso T. Five year research update (1991-1995): evaluations for competence to stand trial. Behav Sci Law 1997; 15:347-364.
6. 6 Bonnie RJ. The competence of criminal defendants: a theoretical reformulation. Behav Sci Law 1992; 10:291-316.
7. 7 Bonnie RJ. The competence of criminal defendants: beyond Dusky and Drope. Miami Law Rev 1993; 47:539-601.
8. 8 Hoge SK, Bonnie RJ, Poythress N, Monahan J, Eisenberg M, Feucht-Haviar T. The MacArthur adjudicative competence study: development and validation of a research instrument. Law Hum Behav 1997; 21:141-179.
9. 9 Nicholson R, Kugler LC. Competent and incompetent criminal defendants: a quantitative review of comparative research. Psychol Bull 1991; 109:355-370.
10. 10 Poythress NG, Hoge SK, Bonnie RJ, Monahan J, Eisenberg M, Feucht-Haviar T. The competence-related abilities of women criminal defendants. Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law 1998; 26:215-222. The authors administered the MacSAC-CD to women criminal defendants in jails and in forensic state hospitals. They found that the MacSAC-CD's overall ability as a research instrument mirrored its performance with male defendants and that its performance is not generally affected by the defendant's sex.
11. 11 Otto RK, Poythress NG, Edens JF, Nicholson RA, Monahan J, Bonnie RJ, et al. Psychometric properties of the MacArthur competence assessment tool-criminal adjudication. Psychol Assess 1998; 10:435-444. Members of the MacArthur Research Network describe the development of a new clinical instrument for use in assessment of adult criminal defendants' competence to proceed to adjudication, the MacCAT-CA.
12. 12 Cruise KR, Rogers R. An analysis of competence to stand trial: an integration of case law and clinical knowledge. Behav Sci Law 1998; 16:35-50. The authors combine legal and clinical frameworks to understand more fully competence to stand trial.
13. 13 Redding RE. Depression in jailed women defendants and its relationship to their adjudicative competence. Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law 1997; 25:105-119.
14. 14 Riley SE. Competency to stand trial adjudication: a comparison of female and male defendants. Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law 1998; 26:223-240. Riley describes the possible role of bias in the evaluation of female defendants' competence to stand trial and identifies some questions that merit empiric study.
15. 15 Hoge SK, Poythress N, Bonnie RJ, Monahan J, Eisenberg M, Feucht-Haviar T. The MacArthur adjudicative competence study: diagnosis, psychopathology, and competence-related abilities. Behav Sci Law 1997; 15:329-345.
16. 16 Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. Misuse of psychiatry in the criminal courts: competency to stand trial. Vol VIII. New York: Gap Publications, 1974.
17. 17 Jaffe ME, Sharma KK. Malingering uncommon psychiatric symptoms among defendants charged under California's 'three strikes and you're out' law. J Forens Sci 1998; 43:549-555. The paper provides a discussion of nine cases of malingering and a description of diagnostic processes that led them to the diagnosis of malingering in each of these cases.
18. 18 Kirkish P, Sreenivasan S. Neuropsychological assessment of competency to stand trial evaluations: a practical conceptual model. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 1999; 27:101-113. The authors provide a description of the usefulness of nouropsychologic testing when evaluating a criminal defendant who may have neuropsychologic deficits, including its role in detecting malingering.
19. 19 Rosenfeld B, Ritchie K. Competence to stand trial: clinician reliability and the role of offense severity. J Forens Sci 1998; 43:151-157.
20. 20 Plotnick S, Porter J, Bagby M. Is there bias in the evaluation of fitness to stand trial? Int J Law Psychiatry 1996; 21:291-304. This study, using hypothetical case vignettes, provides insights into the role of bias in competence to stand trial.
21. 21 McKee GR. Competency to stand trial in preadjudicatory juveniles and adults. Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law 1998; 26:89-99. McKee underscores the increasing importance of understanding the variables that affect the competence to stand trial of juveniles of different ages.
22. 22 Warren JI, Rosenfeld B, Fitch WL, Hawk G. Forensic mental health clinical evaluation: an analysis of interstate and intersystemic differences. Law Hum Behav 1997; 21:377-390.
23. 23 Pitt SE, Brandt JD, Tellefsen C, Janofsky JS, Cohen ME, Bettis ED, Rappeport JR. Group dynamics in forensic pretrial decision-making. Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law 1997; 25:95-104.
24. 24 Robbins E, Waters J, Herbert P. Competency to stand trial evaluations: a study of actual practice in two states. Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law 1997; 25:469-483.
25. 25 Skeem JL, Golding SL, Berge G, Cohn NB, Berge G. Logic and reliability of evaluations of competence to stand trial. Law Hum Behav 1998; 22:519-547. The authors dissect forensic reports and find reasonable levels of agreement regarding diagnosis, but divergent reasoning supporting the opinions.
26. 26 Roesch R, Ogloff JR, Hart SD, Dempster RJ, Zapf PA, Whitlemore KE. The impact of Canadian criminal code changes on remands and assessments of fitness to stand trial and criminal responsibility in British Columbia. Can J Psychiatry 1997; 42:509-514.
27. 27 Zapf PA, Roesch R. Fitness to stand trial: characteristics of remands since the 1992 criminal code amendments. Can J Psychiatry 1998; 43:287-293. The authors expand on the work reported by their group in 1997.
28. 28 Ohayon MM, Crocker A, St. Onge B, Caulet M. Fitness, responsibility and judicially ordered assessments Can J Psychiatry 1998; 43;491-495.