Assuring an individual's competency to stand trial is one of the principles of equality that sets this nation apart from many others. In addition, the fact that defendants hospitalized as incompetent to stand trial comprise the largest single group of criminal commitments to hospitals in the United States suggests that this is an area of research that cannot afford to be overlooked. Despite the importance of the topic, the information learned about defendants found incompetent to stand trial has been sporadic and often incomplete. The majority of research in this area has been comprised of comparison studies, which compare defendants found incompetent to stand trial to other groups of individuals, and prediction studies which attempt to formulate a prediction equation to decide a defendant's competency status. Knowledge gained in these studies provides more information about what characteristics are more frequently associated with a particular competency decision and what variables seem to be the best predictor for the decision reached. Having this information should help evaluators assess defendants' competency, treat those found incompetent, and help assess the potential restorability of defendants found incompetent. / This particular prediction study was unique in that it included a variety of reliable assessment methods to evaluate the defendants' psychological, organic, and intellectual functioning. The entire prediction equation consisted of the following information about the defendants: demographic variables, criminal history, current charges, psychological test data, and diagnosis. The results confirmed previous research regarding the defendants' demographic characteristics but were somewhat inconsistent with previous research regarding the defendants' intellectual level and diagnosis. The variables found to be most effective in the equation were associated with the defendants' organic functioning. Unfortunately, although this was a consistent finding, the low accuracy rate of the prediction equation, particularly when cross validated, suggests that the prediction formula was just slightly better than chance in its prediction abilities. This low rate of accuracy suggests a great deal of ambiguity in this decision making process and necessitates further research and better legislation for the construct of competency to stand trial. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-02, Section: B, page: 0993. / Major Professor: Joyce Lynn Carbonell. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_78189 |
| Contributors | Lesser, Fran Ilene., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 101 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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