How Reliable Are Forensic Evaluations? Evaluator Agreement in Sanity Evaluations

Gowensmith, Neil; Murrie, Daniel C.; Boccaccini, Marcus T.

doi:10.1037/e627362010-001

Cited by 4 publications

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“…The overall percentage of forensic admissions for all state hospital patients increased from 7.6% in 1983% to 36% in 2012 to approximately 58% in 2014, with restoration cases comprising the largest proportion of forensic patients (Parks & Radke, 2014; Wik, Hollen, & Fisher, 2017). For example, Wisconsin saw a 34.8% increase between 2011 and 2013 in defendants adjudicated IST and ordered to restoration (Wisconsin Department of Health Services, 2013), Hawaii saw a 35.8% increase from 2005 to 2009 (Gowensmith, 2010), Washington had a 73% increase between 2010 and 2014 (JLARC, 2014), and Los Angeles County reported a 48% increase in the 2014–2015 year alone (Los Angeles County Health Services, 2016). In Oregon, the rate of competence restoration cases increased 129% from 2012 through 2017, with 42% of restoration services provided to misdemeanants (A. Millkey, personal communication, October 16, 2017).…”

Section: Increasing Demand For Cst Evaluations and Restorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further, defendants charged with less serious, often low-level or nuisance offenses, are disproportionately likely to be found incompetent (Cochrane, Grisso, & Frederick, 2001; Gardner, Murrie, Torres, & Agee, 2018; Warren et al, 2006). Data from two jurisdictions, Virginia and Hawaii, reveal that individuals arrested for misdemeanors or nuisance offenses tend to have more severe psychiatric illness than those arrested for felonies (Gowensmith, 2010; Warren et al, 2006). For example, in Hawaii, 65% of misdemeanants referred for CST evaluations had a psychotic disorder, compared to 44% of felony offenders.…”

Section: Causes Of Delays For Cst Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Resolution or resignation: The role of forensic mental health professionals amidst the competency services crisis.

Gowensmith

2019

Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

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Competency-related services are rising at an unprecedented rate in the United States. Many states are in the midst of lawsuits and legal maneuvering to deal with long wait lists for defendants awaiting competency evaluations and admission to competency restoration services. As a result, many solutions have been proffered and implemented. However, solutions vary in their adherence to existing empirical research and applied experience. Forensic mental health professionals are uniquely qualified to shape the evolution of competency-related services into a humane and effective system. Promising policy implications can be rooted in emerging knowledge about the timing of competency evaluations, certification of evaluators, alternatives to inpatient restoration, and changes to evaluations and the associated reports. However, forensic professionals have typically given minimal attention to these issues, instead giving more focus to narrower issues of optimizing competency evaluations and restoration procedures. In so doing, forensic professionals are at risk of abdicating their expertise regarding competency-related services to other professions, as well as compromising their ethical commitments of beneficence and nonmaleficence in regard to incompetent defendants.

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Section: Increasing Demand For Cst Evaluations and Restorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Causes Of Delays For Cst Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resolution or resignation: The role of forensic mental health professionals amidst the competency services crisis.

Gowensmith

2019

Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

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“…Evaluators are prohibited by statute from collaborating or sharing information with each other during the evaluation process. More so than any other state, Hawaii has arranged their forensic service delivery system to rely on multiple, concurrent, independent evaluations (Gowensmith, 2010) in a way that is uniquely conducive to studying field reliability.…”

Section: Research Addressing the Reliability Of Cst Evaluationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field reliability of competence to stand trial opinions: How often do evaluators agree, and what do judges decide when evaluators disagree?

Gowensmith¹,

Murrie²,

Boccaccini³

2012

Law and Human Behavior

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Despite many studies that examine the reliability of competence to stand trial (CST) evaluations, few shed light on "field reliability," or agreement among forensic evaluators in routine practice. We reviewed 216 cases from Hawaii, which requires three separate evaluations from independent clinicians for each felony defendant referred for CST evaluation. Results revealed moderate agreement. In 71% of initial CST evaluations, all evaluators agreed about a defendant's competence or incompetence (kappa = .65). Agreement was somewhat lower (61%, kappa = .57) in re-evaluations of defendants who were originally found incompetent and sent for restoration services. We also examined the decisions judges made about a defendant's CST. When evaluators disagreed, judges tended to make decisions consistent with the majority opinion. But when judges disagreed with the majority opinion, they more often did so to find a defendant incompetent than competent, suggesting a generally conservative approach. Overall, results reveal moderate agreement among independent evaluators in routine practice. But we discuss the potential for standardized training and methodology to further improve the field reliability of CST evaluations.

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“…Der US-amerikanische Bundesstaat Hawaii verlangt in Fragen der Schuldfähigkeit mehrere unabhängige Gutachten. Daher konnten Gowensmith et al 10 dort eine Feldstudie anhand von 483 Gutachten über 165 Probanden durchführen, um die Übereinstimmung der Begutachtenden (Rater) zu untersuchen. Die Gutachter teilten lediglich in 55,1 % der Fälle die Meinung bezüglich der Schuldfähigkeit der Probanden.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Der Einfluss von Profession und Erfahrung hinsichtlich der kriteriengeleiteten Beurteilung der Schuldfähigkeit bei paraphilen Störungen – eine randomisierte kontrollierte Studie

et al. 2021

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Zusammenfassung Ziel der Studie Die Studie untersucht, ob Beruf und Erfahrungsgrad einen Einfluss auf die kriteriengeleitete Beurteilung der Schuldfähigkeit bei paraphilen Störungen haben. Methodik Zwei verschiedene Kriterienkataloge wurden von 3 verschiedenen Berufsgruppen (Psychologen, Psychiater und Juristen), jeweils mit einem unterschiedlichen Ausmaß an Vorerfahrung, hinsichtlich ihrer prädiktiven Validität überprüft. Hierzu bewerteten 349 Rater die Kriterien eines von 2 Kriterienkatalogen anhand einer von 2 beispielhaften Fallvignetten. Die Zuteilung erfolgte randomisiert. Ergebnisse Die Variablen Erfahrungsgrad und Berufszugehörigkeit zeigten bezogen auf keinen der beiden Kriterienkataloge einen Zusammenhang mit der Vorhersageleistung bezüglich der Einschätzung der Schwere der Störung bzw. der erheblich verminderten Steuerungsfähigkeit. Schlussfolgerung Bei der Anwendung einer kriteriengeleiteten Vorgehensweise konnte mit der Methodik der hier vorliegenden Studie (Präsentation von kurzen Fallvignetten) kein signifikanter Einfluss von Berufsgruppe und Erfahrung auf die Einschätzung bei Fragen der Schuldfähigkeit im Zusammenhang mit paraphilen Störungen festgestellt werden. Die Anwendung von Kriterienkatalogen kann möglicherweise unabhängig von einschlägigen Vorerfahrungen im Bereich der Schuldfähigkeitsbegutachtung einen substanziellen Teil zur Vorhersageleistung beitragen, ist jedoch nicht als alleinige Beurteilungsquelle anzusehen.

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How Reliable Are Forensic Evaluations? Evaluator Agreement in Sanity Evaluations

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Resolution or resignation: The role of forensic mental health professionals amidst the competency services crisis.

Resolution or resignation: The role of forensic mental health professionals amidst the competency services crisis.

Field reliability of competence to stand trial opinions: How often do evaluators agree, and what do judges decide when evaluators disagree?

Der Einfluss von Profession und Erfahrung hinsichtlich der kriteriengeleiteten Beurteilung der Schuldfähigkeit bei paraphilen Störungen – eine randomisierte kontrollierte Studie

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