Competency evaluations by forensic psychologists

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Introduction

Competency is a concept of jurisprudence which states that the subject must be able to participate in their defense. If they lack this competency, then their trial can be deferred until time when they regain their competency and become free of mental or physical disorder. It has been found that between 25,000 and 39,000 competency evaluations are conducted in the United States annually. This represents about 2% to 8% of the total criminal felony defendants in the country (Zapf and Roesch, 2000).

The question of competence is not limited to the trial alone. Instead, the competency of the individual is determined at nearly all the levels in the courts. First, the person has to be competent to waive the Miranda rights in order to give a confession. Then, he also needs to be competent to stand trial, and if convicted, competent to serve the sentence. Then, if the person is to be considered for the capital punishment, then he must also be competent to be executed. The foremost is the competency at the time of conducting the offense (Franklin, 2011).

The competency evaluations are psychological assessments which involve certain psychological testing to determine the person's competency. The tests are mostly based on structured interviews; however semi-structured interviews may also be conducted in certain cases. These tests could be performed by any person, such as the mental health practitioners, neuropsychologists, trained employees of federal departments or certain organizations, or by other forensic psychologists or clinicians (Melton, Petrila, Poythress, and Slobogin, 2007).

Problems with competency evaluations

There are several controversies that exist in the administering of the tests for competency evaluations. The screening instruments for conducting structured competency evaluation have many related controversies. First, the validity and reliability of the competency screening test (CST) is not found. In many cases, otherwise competent ...