Citation

Berman LM, Osbome YH. Behav. Sci. Law 1987; 5(3): 373-380.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/bsl.2370050310

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to compare defendants for whom the competency to stand trial (CTST) motion had been raised with those for whom it had not. Twenty attorneys (10 private, 10 public) rated six clients each on a questionnaire of demographic characteristics, behavioral descriptors, and attorney's certainty of incompetency for the clients who had the motion raised. Type of offense and educational level discriminated between the defendant groups, as did 8 of the 11 behavioral descriptor subscales. Speech disorganization was the only subscale that correlated with attorney certainty of client incompetency. The majority of the attorneys were found to be familiar with the Dusky criteria.

RESULTS are discussed in light of future studies and caution with respect to data from studies of only defendants referred for CTST evaluations.

Language: en