Correlates of adjudicative competence among psychiatrically impaired juveniles.
This study examines the competence-related abilities of 120 psychiatrically hospitalized male juveniles age 10 to 17 years, using the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Criminal Adjudication (MacCAT-CA), the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale-Anchored (BPRS-A), the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument (MAYSI), the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT), and discharge diagnoses derived from file review. The findings indicate significant age-related differences across adolescence with a relatively strong performance for most of the youths on the competence measure. While intellectual and psychiatric factors were found to contribute substantially to deficits in legal decisional ability, they were modulated by age and the developmental factors associated with it. These findings, replete with caveats concerning both the dimensional structure of competence as measured by the MacCAT-CA and the interplay with the mental status and developmental factors affecting it, underscore the multifarious nature of legal decisional capacity in youths of varying ages. The relevance of these findings to the structuring of restoration services and the application of legal theory to the competence standard in juvenile court are discussed.
Warren
Janet I
JI
Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908-0660, USA. jiw@virginia.edu
Aaron
Jeff
J
Ryan
Eileen
E
Chauhan
Preeti
P
DuVal
Jeanette
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D006760:Hospitalization; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D016743:Mental Competency / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology*; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent