This study was designed to determine what factors were most influential in making determinations about the final judicial decisions of competency to stand trial and placement of the mentally retarded defendant. The study focused on the judicial system because of its importance in moving the mentally retarded defendant through the legal system with the least amount of difficulties and the greatest assurance that the legal rights of these defendants would not be violated. Factors such as demographic variables, prior hospitalizations, behavior problems, specifics of hospitalization in a competency training program and current charges were considered to determine their effect on judicial decisions. Eighty-one incompetent mentally retarded defendants were included and a record search was conducted to gather specifics about those variables of interest. Discriminant analyses and chi-square tests of significance of relationships between variables were performed. The most significant finding was the judge's tendency to adjudicate the mentally retarded defendant as incompetent to stand trial regardless of previous recommendations by the competency training program staff that the defendant was clearly competent to stand trial. Reasons for this finding included: (1) the judge's lack of knowledge about mental retardation and (2) the judge's tendency to equate low intelligence with incompetency due to a limited ability to learn. Poor predictive ability was noted for those variables influential in determining final placement for the mentally retarded defendant. Possible causes included: (1) a lack of available placements for these defendants and (2) variables included in this study may have been influenced by other sources of variance such as characteristics of the judge and individual characteristics of the subjects. It was suggested that the ultimate solution to the / problems inherent in judicial dispositions for the mentally retarded defendant would be the establishment of a special court for these individuals with trained officials who are aware of the needs of these individuals. Also, provisions for additional placements for these defendants seem necessary to prevent incarceration without a trial and the use of the incompetency to stand trial issue as a means for involuntary commitment perhaps for life. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-12, Section: B, page: 4166. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75014 |
| Contributors | WILLIAMS, KATHRYN PATRICIA., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 90 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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