Forensic mental health assessment in France: Recommendations for quality improvement

Combalbert, Nicolas; Armand, Marine; Robin, Cécile; Bazex, Hélène

doi:10.1016/j.ijlp.2014.02.037

Cited by 19 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 36 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Although there is no obvious explanation for the differences we have found, we cannot exclude the hypothesis that the strong influence of psychoanalytic principles and psychodynamic methods in French clinical education and practice (Amouroux, 2017;Combalbert, Andronikof, Armand, Robin, & Bazex, 2014;Guivarch et al, 2017) in contrast to the broader and more evidence-based Norwegian clinical education 2 , may have played a role in the differences we have found. Psychoanalysis is still widely taught in French university is still widely used by mental health practitioners, and is still very popular and highly publicized.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 67%

Psychologists and Psychiatrists in Court: What Do They Know About Eyewitness Memory? A Comparison of Experts in Inquisitorial and Adversarial Legal Systems

Dodier

Melinder

Otgaar

et al. 2019

J Police Crim Psych

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In criminal cases involving eyewitness reports, psychologists or psychiatrists may be recruited as expert witnesses to help triers of facts to evaluate eyewitness statements, on the assumption that psychologists and psychiatrists are real experts, familiar with scientific progress about how memory works. But are they knowledgeable concerning the science of memory? We assessed the knowledge about eyewitness memory of experts from France and Norway, countries having different legal systems, that is: inquisitorial and adversarial, respectively. We reanalysed the results of a Norwegian psychologists and psychiatrists survey and compared the results with survey data of a sample of French psychologists and psychiatrists serving as judicial experts. The French sample performed inferior relative to the Norwegian sample. More precisely, discrepancies in correct answers were found on seven critical items related to both experimental and clinical psychology. Such weaknesses in the knowledge about memory are briefly discussed with regards to psychological education and to legal systems.

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 67%

Psychologists and Psychiatrists in Court: What Do They Know About Eyewitness Memory? A Comparison of Experts in Inquisitorial and Adversarial Legal Systems

Dodier

Melinder

Otgaar

et al. 2019

J Police Crim Psych

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Since then, it is well-known that French clinical practice and education has a very strong psychoanalytical culture (Holden, 2005). As a result, psychoanalytical methods and theories (e.g., repression) are widely used by French psychologists and psychiatrists (Combalbert, Andronikof, Armand, Robin, & Bazex, 2014;Guivarch et al, 2017). Furthermore, as we briefly reviewed, clinicians and the general public in France seem to have little knowledge and false beliefs about how memory works (Dodier, 2018;Dodier & Payoux, 2017).…”

Section: Present Studymentioning

confidence: 95%

Reports of recovered memories of childhood abuse in therapy in France

Dodier

Patihis

Payoux

2019

Memory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recovered memories of abuse in therapy are especially controversial if the clients were not aware they were abused before therapy. In the past, such memory recovery has led to legal action, as well as a debate about whether such memories might be repressed, forgotten, or false memories. More than two decades after the height of the controversy, it is unclear to what degree such memories are still recovered today, and to what extent it occurs in France.In our French survey of 1312 participants (M age = 33; 53% female), 551 reported having done therapy at some point. Of that 551, 33 (6%) indicated they had recovered memories of abuse in therapy that they did not know about before therapy. Sexual abuse was the most commonly reported type that was recovered in therapy (79%). As in past research, discussing the possibility of repressed memories with therapists was associated with reports of recovered memories of abuse. Surprisingly, memory recovery occurred just as much in behavioural and cognitive therapies as it did in therapies focused on trauma. We found recovered memories in a proportion of clients who began therapy recently. Recovered memories in therapy appears to be an ongoing concern in France.

show abstract

“…The problem of FMHA report quality is not restricted to Australia. Similar concerns on the quality and helpfulness of FMHA reports have been expressed in countries such as France (Combalbert, Andronikof, Armand, Robin, & Bazex, 2014), the Netherlands (Duits, Van Der Hoorn, Wiznitzer, Wettstein, & de Beurs, 2012), Portugal (Guerreiro, Casoni, & Santos, 2014) and the US (Hecker & Steinberg, 2002;Morin et al, 2015).…”

Section: Legislationmentioning

confidence: 65%

Psychological reports for sentencing juveniles in Australian courts

Bycroft

Dear

Drake

2019

Psychiatry, Psychology and Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Psychological reports for use in court must be relevant to the legal issues in dispute, meet professional standards, and reflect evidence-based practice. Using the Delphi method, a high degree of consensus was found among Australian experts in the methodology and knowledge required for conducting forensic mental health assessment (FMHAs) and the content needed in pre-sentence reports. Consensus was absent in two areas, if a pre-sentence report should always include a risk-assessment; and the need for a model to guide the FMHA. Without a model it is difficult for practitioners to justify their decision-making process, and judicial officers have no mechanism to determine if the work provided to the court is of an acceptable standard. Future research should focus on developing a model for presentence reports that includes a decision-making process and minimum standards. Researchers also need to determine judicial officers' views on the helpfulness of presentence reports.

show abstract

Forensic mental health assessment in France: Recommendations for quality improvement

Cited by 19 publications

References 36 publications

Psychologists and Psychiatrists in Court: What Do They Know About Eyewitness Memory? A Comparison of Experts in Inquisitorial and Adversarial Legal Systems

Psychologists and Psychiatrists in Court: What Do They Know About Eyewitness Memory? A Comparison of Experts in Inquisitorial and Adversarial Legal Systems

Reports of recovered memories of childhood abuse in therapy in France

Psychological reports for sentencing juveniles in Australian courts

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About