The Competence Assessment for Standing Trial for Defendants with Mental Retardation (Cast-MR)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an instrument for the assessment of competence to stand trial in criminal defendants with mental retardation. Three experiments were conducted on the instrument developed, Competence Assessment for Standing Trial for Defendants with Mental Retardation (CAST-MR). Experiment 1 consisted of three pilot testings with mentally retarded group home residents, Experiment 2 an expert appraisal process and readability analysis, and Experiment 3 a field testing with four groups of criminal defendants in five sites. Three forms of reliability-internal consistency, test-retest, and interrater-and three forms of validity-content, construct, and criterion-related-were investigated. The results of the reliability and validity analyses indicate that the CAST-MR may be a valid and reliable instrument for assessment of competence to stand trial in criminal defendants with mental retardation.

A Survey of Psychological Test Use Patterns Among Forensic Psychologists

“…N = 75. a = never; b = infrequently; c = occasionally; d = about 50% of the time; e = frequently; f = almost always; g = always; TM = total mentions; WS = weighted scores (sum of n × numerical weight of ratings: a = 0, b = 1, c = 2, d = 3, e = 4, f = 5, g = 6). (Wechsler, 1992) 96 13 (Pascal & Suttell, 1951) 43 9 17 3 2 0 3 34 78 Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (Luria, 1965) Everington & Luckasson, 1992) were the next most commonly used. The results for this category also included the family of instruments by Grisso (1998) to evaluate competency to waive Miranda Rights and an instrument by Rogers (1984) to assess criminal responsibility (i.e., The Rogers' Criminal Responsibility Assessment scales).…”

Hospitalization of criminal defendants for evaluation of competence to stand trial or for restoration of competence: clinical and legal issues

“…The development of several research-validated competence assessment scales has provided reliable instruments that can easily be used on an outpatient basis, and do not require extensive legal knowledge to administer or score (Grisso, 1986;Schreiber, Roesch, & Golding, 1987). In particular, the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Criminal Adjudication (Otto et al, 1998) for competence in general populations, and the Competence Assessment for Standing Trial in Mentally Retarded Defendants (Everington & Luckasson, 1992), provide scores that can be compared with study samples of defendants independently found competent and incompetent to stand trial.…”

Assessment and treatment of offenders with intellectual and developmental disabilities

“…The Competence Assessment to Stand TrialMental Retardation (CAST-MR: Everington & Luckasson, 1992) assesses competence in three areas related to the court system -basic legal concepts, skills to assist defence and understanding of case events. The CAST-MR was used by 45% of psychologists surveyed about practices used when evaluating juvenile competence to stand trial (Ryba, Cooper & Zapf, 2003).…”