Competency To Stand Trial Study

Sir Francis Bacon first introduced the scientific method in 1561 (Ullmer, 2011). Bacon said that his new method could produce much knowledge by observation and/or experience. The scientific method allows us to accept skepticism and use critical thinking for obvious explanations and to use experiments to make sure we test an alternative hypothesis (Blanchard, 1958). In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig Germany (Blumenthal, 1975), where he used the scientific method by using objective measurement and control to analyze how the mind works (McLeod, 2008). Psychology allows one to explore how a person acts, feels, and thinks (Albee, 2002). Researchers, like James Cattell and Joseph Jastrow, use the scientific

It is also concluded that approximately 61% of the schizophrenic/schizoaffective and mild mental retardation subgroup was deemed incompetent to stand trial, unemployed defendants were twice as likely to be deemed incompetent, and defendants with psychiatric disorders were eight times as likely to be deemed incompetent (Tarescavage, Anthony M., Luna Jones, Lynn, Lee, Tayla T. C., 2017). In conclusion, because of the limitations of the study, future research is necessary to expand the conclusions. First, because the study took place in a Northeast Ohio single site, the findings may not conclude the same in other parts of the United States. More research is needed in other areas to see if the findings are duplicated. Secondly, the groups were obtained using judge’s opinions, which can ultimately lead to contamination. Future studies should use a more standardized criterion (Tarescavage, Anthony M., Luna Jones, Lynn, Lee, Tayla T. C.,

This study used the scientific method, which can pinpoint participants that may be exaggerating intellectual deficits in order to show that they are not competent to stand trial (Gottfried, Emily & Carbonell, Joyce, 2014); malingering as high as 20-30% during a forensic evaluation. For CST, one must be able to understand their case in a rational and factual manner. This study expanded their research area to participants from a southeastern state psychiatric hospital and a southeastern university. The participants picked for this study scored in the honest range on a measure of malingering using The Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test (M-FAST). The IQ’s of the participants ranged from 25-121, with a mean IQ of university students of 106.26 and hospital patients of 69.17. This study showed that the ILK is moderately associated with intelligence among the hospital patients but the association in the university students is weak (Gottfried, Emily & Carbonell, Joyce,