Effects of State Organizational Structure and Forensic Examiner Training on Pre-Trial Competence Assessments
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1999
Keywords
Delivery System, Health Promotion, Health Psychology, Disease Prevention, Service Delivery
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02287487
Abstract
States differ widely in their delivery of pretrial forensic evaluation services, in terms of organizational structure and training requirements of forensic examiners. It was hypothesized that defendants adjudicated incompetent to proceed in states using community-based, private-practitioner systems would show less impairment on a competence assessment measure, the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Criminal Adjudication (MacCAT-CA), than defendants adjudicated incompetent in states using traditional, inpatient systems. It also was hypothesized that mean MacCAT-CA scores for incompetent defendants from states requiring forensic training/certification would be lower than for defendants from states lacking such requirements. Results indicated significant differences across the four types of service delivery systems examined. However, planned comparisons revealed no differences between a state using a traditional, inpatient model and a state employing a community-based, private-practitioner model. Analyses examining the effects of mandatory forensic training failed to support the hypothesis that training requirements result in the adoption of higher thresholds for determining incompetence.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
The Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research, v. 26, issue 2, p. 140-150
Scholar Commons Citation
Edens, John F.; Poythress, Norman G.; Nicholson, Robert A.; and Otto, Randy K., "Effects of State Organizational Structure and Forensic Examiner Training on Pre-Trial Competence Assessments" (1999). Mental Health Law & Policy Faculty Publications. 121.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/mhlp_facpub/121
