title: An investigation of the construct of competence: a comparison of the FIT, the MacCAT-CA, and the MacCAT-T.
abstract: The 1990s witnessed Supreme Court decisions in both Canada and the United States on issues of competence that went against longstanding case law, psychological research, and common sense. These decisions held that there is to be one standard for all types of criminal competencies. The present research attempts to investigate whether this is an appropriate assumption and thus tests whether there are one or more constructs that underlie different types of competence. Two divergent types of competence were examined, competence to stand trial (both Canadian and American conceptualizations) and competence to consent to treatment, to determine if these different types of competence share a common underlying construct. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test this question and results indicate that there is a common construct that underlies different types of competence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, New York 10019, USA. pzapf@jjay.cuny.edu
authors.forename: Patricia A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Zapf
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roesch
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D003134:Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D003416:Criminal Law; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D016743:Mental Competency / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011329:Prisoners / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016312:Treatment Refusal / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014481:United States; D014754:Violence / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology