Civil commitment. The relationship between perceived dangerousness and mental illness.
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California↗
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New evidence on the violence risk posed by people with mental illness: on the importance of specifying the timing and the targets of violence.
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Dangerous Behavior↗
Reflections on the Patty Hearst case.
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Coercion↗
An administrative model for close monitoring and managing high risk individuals.
The public expects central government to have immediate knowledge of the condition and circumstances of certain vulnerable or dangerous individuals such as insanity acquittees, and to take action in individual cases to protect the individual and the public. Therefore, such persons conditionally released to community settings require an unusual degree of close monitoring and management. Being immediately aware of the condition and circumstances of its assignees, together with other duties of a board or commission responsible for that monitoring and management, is largely an information management function. The Psychiatric Security Review Board in Oregon is used to illustrate this unique mission, operations, and information management. In this paper, the Psychiatric Security Review Board is described in terms of its core and secondary businesses, together with a model information system that is based on information and information management processes actually employed by the Board.
Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders↗
Dangerousness and disability as predictors of psychiatric patients' legal status.
In a sample of patients admitted to two state psychiatric facilities, discriminant analyses were used to predict (1) legal status at admission (voluntary versus emergency detention), and (2) the subsequent decision to commit patients initially admitted under an order of emergency detention (court commitment versus release). Measures of preadmission dangerousness, followed by variables reflecting degree of disability or impairment, accounted for most of the variance in legal status at admission. Personal resources and demographic characteristics added little to the discrimination. Measures of disability accounted for most of the variance in the later decision to commit, whereas indices of dangerousness, personal resources, and demographics added little to discrimination of discharged and court-committed patients. These findings reflect the gap between legal standards and the practice of civil commitment, and support the argument that degree of disability plays a more important role than dangerousness in decisions to extend the hospitalization of involuntary patients.
Adult↗
Characteristics of state prisoners who demonstrate severe adjustment problems.
Hypothesis was tested that prison inmates who present serious disciplinary problems during incarceration that result in human injury, threat to personal safety, or extensive property damage also will tend to show a history of significant societal maladjustment as compared to prisoners who do not demonstrate adjustment problems. Societal maladjustment was defined to include significant problems in education, marriage, military service, and job stability. This project was an effort to present a picture of the types individuals who cause what generally are considered to be the more severe prison disturbances. The social and relevant background areas were investigated of 50 male state prison inmates who had committed serious acting-out infractions. The same background data were checked on 50 inmates who demonstrated good prison adjustment within the same time period. When background data were analyzed carefully, a trend was discovered that indicated that prisoners who create serious trouble while confined also tend to have significant histories of social failures. The results are interpreted as in favor of the hypothesis.
Adolescent↗
Hedlund paranoia.
A brief review of Tarasoff vs. Regents of University of California (1976) 17 Cal.3d 425 is presented, followed by several important issues that have emerged from that decision. Tarasoff's most recent progeny, Hedlund vs. Superior Court (1983) 34 Cal.3d 695, then is reviewed in light of Tarasoff and current tort law in California. It is asserted that the Hedlund decision has been egregiously misread and that many psychologists consequently are painfully misinformed.
California↗
The development of factor-based level of functioning scales from a level of care instrument.
A factor analysis of data from 1,295 administrations of a level of care instrument produced a seven-factor solution. The scales developed from these factors through a simple unit weighting procedure were internally reliable and replicable on an additional sample of clients. The seven factors are discussed in terms of level of functioning measures. Results suggest that community living skills and self-care skills are two among several robust dimensions of level of functioning in psychiatric clients. Implications are discussed.
Activities of Daily Living↗
Aspects of consensus in clinical predictions of imminent violence.
This research studied individual differences among psychiatric patients in the extent to which clinical workers agree about the likelihood that the patients will act violently. Predictions of imminent violence proneness for 40 male inpatients made by 35 experienced clinical practitioners were analyzed. As hypothesized, subgroups of patients who elicited high interjudge agreement were found, and admission profiles of these patients were presented. Clinical workers' predictive accuracy was found to be greater when they rated patients who elicited high consensus than for unselected patients or for those who elicited low consensus.
Attitude of Health Personnel↗
Getting it right: the trial of sexual assault and child molestation cases under federal rules of evidence 413-415.
Congressional enactment of Federal Rules of Evidence 413-415 changed centuries of the law which had excluded evidence by the state that the defendant had committed other bad acts and was therefore the sort of person who would be more likely to commit the act charged. The passage of Rules 413-415 opens the door to this type of character evidence in sexual assault and child molestation cases and requires trial judges to assess the probative value of this propensity evidence offered. Yet, neither these rules nor their legislative history offer much guidance in this assessment. This article offers guidance to trial judges and lawyers to assess the probative value of propensity evidence offered under these rules.
Adult↗
Psychopathy, criminal responsibility, and civil commitment as a sexual predator.
Recent judicial decisions regarding commitment under sexual predator statutes and commentary addressing the legal significance of psychopathy provide an interesting opportunity to reflect upon the exculpatory significance of psychopathy and the appropriate relationship between criminal conviction and police power civil commitment. This paper examines the legal significance of psychopathy for the purposes of criminal responsibility and of civil commitment under sexual predator statutes. By examining the significance of psychopathy for each of these legal institutions, it clarifies our understanding of the legal significance of psychopathy and of the relationship between these institutions. This process illuminates the defensible functions and boundaries of each institution and clarifies the nature of the impairment that should qualify an individual for confinement by each. This analysis interprets criminal conviction and police power commitment, including sexual predator commitment, as integrated institutions of social control intended to provide a coherent approach to psychopaths as well as to others who require state intervention under the police power.
Adult↗
An examination of the assumptions of specialization, mental disorder, and dangerousness in sex offenders.
Sex offenders have been singled out for differential treatment by the legal and mental health systems. This article attempts to inform law reform efforts and criminal justice mental health policy by examining the assumptions underlying differential legal and mental health treatment of sex offenders. These assumptions include the theories that sex offenders are mentally disordered and in need of treatment, specialists in sex crimes, and more dangerous than other criminal offenders. Empirical findings demonstrate that sex offenders are not specialists in sex crimes and are not mentally disordered. Examination of past research suggests that sex offenders are not at more risk than other criminal offenders to commit future sex crimes. Implications of research findings for selective prosecution of sex crime cases, mental health policy, sex offender legislation, and predictions of future dangerousness are discussed. Proposals for future research needs and law reform are presented.
Adult↗
Sex offender commitments in Minnesota: a descriptive study of second generation commitments.
Civil commitment laws intended to prevent sexual violence are being considered and enacted by many state legislatures. In their use of "preventive detention" to lock up the "most dangerous," the laws are highly controversial legally and morally. As well, critics raise questions about the extent to which the laws advance their stated goals. Considering the growing expense of these programs, evaluation efforts based on an empirical foundation are imperative. This study collected data on all 116 men committed under Minnesota's program during the period 1975-1996. The authors report descriptive summary data on admission rates and population trends, demographic characteristics of detainees and victims, pre-commitment criminal and mental health histories, and current status of detainees. The article also compares the committed group with sex offenders in the state's correctional system. The article describes the history and functioning of sex offender commitment programs, and draws implications for policy-makers from the data presented.
Adolescent↗
Sex offender community notification: managing high risk criminals or exacting further vengeance?
The current trend in dealing with convicted sex offenders is to impose long prison sentences followed by stringent release conditions. Added to this practice has been the policy of making such offenders who have been returned to society more visible to the public. In state after state, sex offender community notification laws have been passed, enabling communities to be put on notice that a convicted sex offender has become a resident. To date there has been little empirical evidence regarding the impact of these laws on managing sex offenders in the community. This study focuses on the social and psychological effects of community notification on sex offender reintegration within those communities where notification has occurred. Data are derived from face-to-face interviews with 30 convicted sex offenders, residing in various locations throughout Wisconsin, who were the subjects of community notification. The findings indicate that community notification can have a critical impact on the minimum essentials needed for the reintegration of offenders within the community. What is proposed is a reintegrative approach which suggests that stable housing and employment would mitigate the disruptive and antitherapeutic effects of community notification.
Adult↗
Power imbalances in therapeutic and forensic relationships.
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Civil Rights↗
Predicting the present: expert testimony and civil commitment.
This article uses the Supreme Court's decision in Daubert as an opportunity to address a chronic concern regarding the disparity between mental health law as officially enunciated and the practical application of that law. After Daubert, admissibility of expert evidence under the federal rules requires a qualified expert, a reliable basis for the testimony, and relevance to the legal issue. Ongoing psychological research pursues empirical data that expands the scope of psychological expertise and clarifies its limits. This article addresses the requirement of relevance by examining the logical relationship between the psychologist's actuarial and clinical expertise and the legal issues addressed by the court in civil commitment proceedings. Ideally, Daubert might stimulate a process of cooperative analysis in which psychologists and lawyers clarify the proper roles of psychological experts and of the courts with which those experts interact. This article begins that project by clarifying the legal determination required in civil commitment proceedings and by explicating the relationship between the responsibilities of experts and those of courts.
Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders↗
The effects of rational and experiential information processing of expert testimony in death penalty cases.
Past research examining the effects of actuarial and clinical expert testimony on defendants' dangerousness in Texas death penalty sentencing has found that jurors are more influenced by less scientific pure clinical expert testimony and less influenced by more scientific actuarial expert testimony (Krauss & Lee, 2003; Krauss & Sales, 2001). By applying cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST) to juror decision-making, the present study was undertaken in an attempt to offer a theoretical rationale for these findings. Based on past CEST research, 163 mock jurors were either directed into a rational mode or experiential mode of processing. Consistent with CEST and inconsistent with previous research using the same stimulus materials, results demonstrate that jurors in a rational mode of processing more heavily weighted actuarial expert testimony in their dangerousness assessments, while those jurors in the experiential condition were more influenced by clinical expert testimony. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.
Adolescent↗
The impact of mental health evidence on support for capital punishment: are defendants labeled psychopathic considered more deserving of death?
Controversy surrounds the use of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (Hare, 1991, 2003) in capital murder cases, where it has been introduced to support prosecution claims that a defendant represents a "continuing threat to society". Although widely presumed to have a prejudicial impact (e.g., American Psychological Association, 2004), little is known about how the lay public reacts to data derived from ostensibly stigmatizing assessment instruments such as the PCL-R. The present study examined the effect of psychopathy data on layperson attitudes by having 203 undergraduates review a capital murder case where the results of the defendant's psychological evaluation were experimentally manipulated. When expert testimony described the defendant as psychopathic, a much larger percentage of participants supported a death sentence (60%) than when testimony indicated that he was psychotic (30%) or not mentally disordered (38%). Interestingly, participant ratings of how psychopathic they perceived the defendant to be--regardless of the testimony condition to which they had been assigned--also predicted support for a death sentence. Given the limited probative value of the PCL-R in capital cases and the prejudicial nature of the effects noted in this study, we recommend that forensic examiners avoid using it in these trials.
Antisocial Personality Disorder↗