Using a Mobile App to Identify Base Rates and Monitor Bias in Forensic Evaluation

Gowensmith, W. Neil; McCallum, Katherine E.; Stout, Harley

doi:10.1080/24732850.2022.2104146

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Between 2016 and 2019, 53% of Colorado's competence evaluations opined the defendant was IST (Colorado Department of Human Services, 2020), as did 56% of Alaska's competence evaluations in 2018 (Agnew Beck Consulting, 2019). Across a nation‐wide, non‐random sample of evaluators who tracked their findings in a smartphone application, 50% of competence evaluations ended in an opinion that the defendant was IST (Gowensmith et al., 2022).…”

Section: Increasing Court Orders For Competence Evaluation and Restor...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluations of competence to stand trial are evolving amid a national “competency crisis”

Murrie

Gowensmith

Kois

et al. 2023

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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Across the United States, court orders for competence to stand trial (CST) evaluations and competence restoration services have been increasing much more rapidly than states can provide these services, prompting what has been called a national "competency crisis." The challenge in providing timely competence restoration services has, in several jurisdictions, prompted a change in competence evaluations. Evaluators are more often required to address broader clinical issues-such as recommending placement or addressing the urgency of hospitalization-rather than addressing only CST. This marks an evolving practice in forensic evaluation, which moves evaluators beyond the very narrow forensic question of competence and into more traditionally clinical recommendations. We describe several state examples of changing practice in order to highlight the initial barriers, and potential benefits, to addressing additional clinical issues in competence evaluations, amid a national competence crisis.

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Section: Increasing Court Orders For Competence Evaluation and Restor...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluations of competence to stand trial are evolving amid a national “competency crisis”

Murrie

Gowensmith

Kois

et al. 2023

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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“…CTP impairments are typically attributable to psychosis and intellectual disability (Gay et al, 2015). Whereas metaanalytic data of CTP outcomes estimated that 27.5% of defendants are incompetent (Pirelli et al, 2011), more recent research suggests that base rates of incompetence are rising and may be closer to 50% (Agnew Beck Consulting, 2019;Office of Civil and Forensic Mental Health, 2019;Gowensmith et al, 2024;Huber, 2023;Murrie et al, 2020).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Court-reported competence to proceed data across the United States.

Kois,

Potts,

Cox

et al. 2024

Law and Human Behavior

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Objective: Competence to proceed (CTP) is a constitutional protection intended to facilitate fairness and dignity of court proceedings. Researchers have estimated that between 60,000 and 94,000 defendants are evaluated for CTP each year. Yet no research has systematically identified the number of evaluations conducted each year, despite their critical role and many profound implications. We used large-scale, systematic data collection to address this knowledge gap. Hypotheses: Given the siloed nature of the judicial and forensic mental health systems, we anticipated incomplete data and that the number of evaluations would far exceed previous estimates. Method: In September 2019, we used public information requests to solicit CTP evaluation order data from the judiciaries of 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. We accepted evaluation proxies, such as evaluations ordered or evaluations filed, from the 2018/2019 calendar/fiscal year. We used Uniform Crime Reporting data to estimate a nationwide evaluation-to-arrest ratio and annual evaluation volume. Results: Twenty-five states provided data. We deemed data from 18 states acceptable while acknowledging that data likely underrepresented actual evaluation volume. By extrapolating data from these 18 states, we estimated a conservative national evaluation-to-arrest ratio of 0.015 (95% confidence interval [−0.007, 0.037]), which suggested that 15 evaluations are conducted per 1,000 arrests each year. Consequently, it seems likely that at least 140,000 evaluations are ordered each year nationwide, with several hundred people referred for evaluations each day. Conclusions: Annual CTP evaluation volume likely far exceeds previous estimates. Transparent data are difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. As a result, researchers, legal and forensic mental health professionals, and policymakers lack the ability to implement informed, constitutionally protected CTP practices. Key implications, research directions, and detailed data infrastructure recommendations are provided.

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Using a Mobile App to Identify Base Rates and Monitor Bias in Forensic Evaluation

Cited by 2 publications

References 49 publications

Evaluations of competence to stand trial are evolving amid a national “competency crisis”

Evaluations of competence to stand trial are evolving amid a national “competency crisis”

Court-reported competence to proceed data across the United States.

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