ABSTRACTPurpose: This study aims to investigate the cognitive deficits associated with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their impact upon the skills necessary for fitness to plead (FTP) to a criminal charge at trial.Methodology: A between-groups study compared the performance of a group of adult participants with a diagnosis of ASD (N = 15) with a matched control group of adults with no diagnosis of ASD (N = 15) on an ecologically valid 15-min filmed vignette of typical Crown Court proceedings, during which they answered questions based upon cognitive skills required for FTP. The cognitive abilities of the participants were also assessed.Findings: Participants in the ASD group scored significantly lower than the control group on the measure of FTP. Specifically, the ASD group scored lower on questions relating to the procedures and processes of the courtroom.Research Implications: Future research using a larger ASD sample and comparisons to a nonforensic ASD sample is recommended to confirm and extend these findings, and further the development of appropriate supporting measures.Practical Implications: The current finding that individuals with ASD have a poorer understanding of the courtroom process than individuals without ASD suggests the need to support and implement special measures with this client group.Originality: This article introduces a standardized measure of FTP for use with individuals with ASD, which has not previously been available.

ABSTRACTStudies have examined relationships between (a) diagnoses and evaluator opinion of competence to stand trial (CST), (b) evaluator opinion and psycholegal abilities, and (c) diagnoses and psycholegal abilities. The present study adds to the literature by exploring the mediating role of psycholegal abilities between diagnoses and CST opinions through the examination of 119 CST reports. Findings indicate deficits in psycholegal abilities mediated the relationship between psychotic disorders and opinion of incompetence, but only among unmedicated defendants. Results regarding psycholegal abilities’ mediating role in the relationship between cognitive disorder and opinion of incompetence are less clear. We offered several hypotheses for the differences in results, as well as suggestions for future research.

In the United States, juvenile offenders are often excluded from the jurisdiction of juvenile court on the basis of age and crime type alone. Data from national surveys and data from psycholegal research on support for adult sanction of juvenile offenders are often at odds. The ways in which questions are asked and the level of detail provided to respondents and research participants may influence expressed opinions. Respondents may also be more likely to agree with harsh sanctions when they have fewer offender- and case-specific details to consider. Here, we test the hypothesis that attitudes supporting statutory exclusion laws measured in the absence of specific case-specific details may not be the best indicator of agreement with such laws in practice. We found that support for statutory exclusion was affected by exposure to information about an offender’s unique situation and by exposure to general scientific information about adolescent development. These results suggest that despite apparent widespread agreement with automatic exclusion statutes, laypersons consider factors other than those allowed by the law when they are asked how to treat an individual offender.

Metacognitive group training (MCT) for psychosis has showed promising effects on positive symptoms of schizophrenia, even in forensic settings. Its effect on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) or patient perspective of it has not been studied before in violent inpatients. This pilot study investigated the patient perspective of the MCT, assessed the intervention’s effects on HRQOL compared with the control group, and compared the patients’ HRQOL with that of the general population. Twenty male violent inpatients with schizophrenia participated and were randomized to the eight-session MCT or to treatment as usual. The participants’ HRQOL was assessed at baseline, at posttreatment, and 3 and 6 months later. Also, participants appraised the MCT immediately after treatment. The training satisfaction was high and compliance was good. On average, the patients’ HRQOL was significantly worse than in the general population and MCT did not have any effect on it, positive or adverse. Special efforts to improve patients’ HRQOL should be made.

Juvenile fire setting and bomb making (JFSB) poses clinical, cross-disciplinary, ethical, and legal challenges. For example, the discipline lacks an available assessment method that is specifically designed to guide the diagnostic work with JFSBs. Consistent with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th edition; DSM-5), an expanded dimensional diagnostic framework referred to as the DSM-5 Quadrant is recommended as a valid approach to augment the clinical utility for both case conceptualization and crafting forensically relevant interventions aimed at these youth. This article identifies issues associated with assessing mental health symptoms frequently found within the JFSB population.

Often cases of suspected child sexual abuse (CSA) come forward through children’s accounts to their parents and the parents’ subsequent reporting thereof. In this study (N = 22), randomly assigned parents listened to a mother-daughter conversation concerning suspected CSA. When freely reporting “what the child told,” participants assessed most of the information brought up by the mother as being brought up by the child. However, when asked to assess the source for each utterance, participants differentiated better. Interestingly, who they deemed brought up an event was not associated with how probable participants deemed it was that the event had occurred.

The study explored the personal narratives of Mentally Disordered Offenders (MDOs) and the impact various mental disorders had on the structure of the offenders’ criminal narratives. Seventy adult male offenders who were sectioned under the United Kingdom’s Mental Health Act 2007 were recruited for the study. Participants were provided with a 36 item Criminal Narrative Role Questionnaire. Smallest Space Analysis found four criminal narrative themes (Victim, Revenger, Hero, Professional), which indicated clear distinctions in the narrative experience of MDOs. The major differences were found to be related to the vulnerability of the offender’s mental disorder.

In this study, confirmatory factor analyses were used to examine scores on the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI) in adolescent, African American males in a forensic setting (N = 496; Mage = 15.96, SDage = 1.32). Results from the study do not support the model proposed by Millon and suggest the MACI may not yield valid or reliable scores in forensic populations of adolescent, African American males. Because MACI scores could be misleading in African American males, the authors argue that the MACI and other trait-scales not validated in this group be used with extreme caution—especially in settings where African Americans are disproportionately represented.

This archival study explored the impact of performance on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), a brief cognitive screen performed as part of a mental status examination (MSE), on adjudicative competency opinions provided for 194 criminal defendants, in examinations that did not include a competency-specific instrument. The MoCA’s suggested cutoff of 26 as indicative of “mild cognitive impairment” was not determinative of examiners’ conclusions regarding competency-related capacities. However, when scores were considered dimensionally, MoCA performance during the MSE accounted for additional significant variance in examiners’ competency opinions, when added to a logistic regression model containing age and presence of psychotic symptoms.