NDLI: Psychiatric Issues in Criminal Courts

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Psychiatric Issues in Criminal Courts

Content Provider	Scilit
Author	Clark, Tom
Copyright Year	2011
Description	Box 20.1 Assessing ﬁtness to plead and stand trial There are no standardized instruments for assessing ﬁtness to plead: • The ﬁrst such tool described in a UK setting showed unconvincing reliability and validity (Akinkunmi, 2002). Dependent on a full psychiatric examination, this is a cross-sectional assessment of capacity. Therefore where an advance opinion in writing concludes that the defendant is under disability, this must be followed up by a further assessment and opinion as close as possible to the trial of issue in court. Consider these issues: • Can the defendant explain to you the charges against them in simple terms? • Can they give an account of what factors would lead them to decide on a guilty or not-guilty plea? • Do they have a basic understanding of the people who will be in the court room and their roles? If you explain an aspect of this to them, can they assimilate it? • Ask them what they would do if they knew someone on the jury, or someone on the jury did not like them. • Can they discuss the events that led to their charges, and give an account of themselves? • How well can they participate during the course of a psychiatric interview? Is there any evidence of distractedness or distractibility, poor short-term memory, agitation or other impairment? Cognitive deﬁcits: • Simple objective tests of cognitive ability, such as a serial 7s and registering and recalling a name and address, may be helpful. But they are not determinative, being rather different to the task required in a court room. Book Name: Practical Forensic Psychiatry
Related Links	https://content.taylorfrancis.com/books/download?dac=C2012-0-10033-0&isbn=9780429252921&doi=10.1201/b13321-24&format=pdf
Ending Page	277
Page Count	14
Starting Page	264
DOI	10.1201/b13321-24
Language	English
Publisher	Informa UK Limited
Publisher Date	2011-10-28
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Book Name: Practical Forensic Psychiatry Legal Medicine Psychiatric Charges Cognitive Opinion Guilty Defendant ﬁtness
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Chapter

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