A Case Law Survey of the Personality Assessment Inventory: Examining Its Role in Civil and Criminal Trials

Abstract

Although professional surveys suggest that the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) is a popular instrument among forensic and correctional psychologists, relatively little is known about the specific types of legal cases in which it is applied, the particular types of questions it is used to address, or the extent to which its admissibility has been at issue in court cases. Using a comprehensive legal database, we surveyed all published U.S., Canadian, European, and Australian criminal and civil cases in which the PAI was administered. The PAI appears to be introduced by examiners in a wide variety of civil (e.g., child custody, personal injury) and criminal (e.g., insanity, competence) cases to aid in the assessment of a broad range of psychopathology. Additionally, the PAI seems to be used frequently to assess questions concerning potential dissimulation and response styles. Surprisingly, the admissibility of the PAI into evidence was never at issue in any of the cases reviewed.

An Examination of Positive Impression Management Validity Scales in the Context of Parenting Capacity Assessments

“…A recent review of international case law has shown a significant increase in the use of the PAI. Among legal cases published in Lexis-Nexis, there has been an increase from only 2 PAI cases published in 1995 to 21 cases in 2006 (Mullen & Edens, 2008). Findings from these published legal cases are consistent with the multiple surveys of child custody forensic evaluators completed by Marc Ackerman and colleagues.…”

“…It has garnered increasing interest and use in the area of child custody and PCA evaluations. It also continues to develop a growing body of research supporting its utility within legal settings, primarily due to its psychometric strengths (Mullen & Edens, 2008). A recent review of international case law has shown a significant increase in the use of the PAI.…”

The Inconsistency of Inconsistency Scales: A Comparison of Two Widely Used Measures

“…Research provides support for the reliability and validity of the PAI (e.g., Boyle & Kavan, 1995;Douglas, Hart & Kropp, 2001;Morey, 2000Morey, , 2007, as well as its convergent and discriminant validity with respect to the MMPI-2. The PAI is widely used in forensic and correctional settings for both research and clinical purposes (Archer, Buffington-Vollum, Stredny, & Handel, 2006;Edens & Ruiz, 2005;Mullen & Edens, 2008).…”

The Use of the SAVRY and YLS/CMI in Adolescent Court Proceedings: A Case Law Review

“…However, while an important aspect of this review is to determine the frequency in which adolescent risk assessment tools are used within juvenile court proceedings, case law reviews such as this are only able to capture a handful of legal cases (i.e., Mullen & Edens, 2008, Vitacco et al, 2012Viljoen et al, 2010). This occurs for multiple reasons.…”

“…A recent case law review examined the use of two widely-used adult risk assessment tools -the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG; Quinsey, Harris, Rice, & Cormier, 1998) and the Historical Clinical Risk-20 (HCR-20;Webster, Douglas, Eaves, & Hart, 1997) -in 46 court cases and found that these tools are typically used in cases concerning a sexually violent offender's commitment or release from a secure setting to parole (Vitacco, Erickson, Kurus, & Apple, 2012). Similar reviews have also examined the use of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 2003;DeMatteo & Edens, 2006) and the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 2007;Mullen & Edens, 2008). However, to date, no similar reviews have been conducted in the context of adolescent risk assessment.…”