title: Effects of state organizational structure and forensic examiner training on pretrial competence assessments.
abstract: States differ widely in their delivery of pretrial forensic evaluation services, in terms of organizational structure and training requirements of forensic examiners. It was hypothesized that defendants adjudicated incompetent to proceed in states using community-based, private-practitioner systems would show less impairment on a competence assessment measure, the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Criminal Adjudication (MacCAT-CA), than defendants adjudicated incompetent in states using traditional, inpatient systems. It also was hypothesized that mean MacCAT-CA scores for incompetent defendants from states requiring forensic training/certification would be lower than for defendants from states lacking such requirements. Results indicated significant differences across the four types of service delivery systems examined. However, planned comparisons revealed no differences between a state using a traditional, inpatient model and a state employing a community-based, private-practitioner model. Analyses examining the effects of mandatory forensic training failed to support the hypothesis that training requirements result in the adoption of higher thresholds for determining incompetence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341-2447, USA. psy_jfe@shsu.edu
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Edens
authors.forename: N G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Poythress
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Nicholson
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Otto
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016743:Mental Competency; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D017149:Private Sector; D011364:Professional Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017150:Public Sector; D012016:Reference Values; D013219:State Government; D014481:United States