Psychology 2032A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Sleepwalking, Shoplifting, Behaviour Therapy

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2032A/B
• Professor: John Campbell

Document Summary

Chapter 8 the role of mental illness in court. How many defendants are referred for fitness evaluations: approx. 5000 fitness evaluations are conducted annually in canada. Who can assess fitness: traditionally, only medical practitioners have been allowed to conduct court-ordered assessments of such aspects as fitness to stand trial and criminal responsibility, canadian criminal code excludes psychologists from conducting court-ordered assessments. Fitness instruments fitness interview test revised (fit-r: developed to meet fitness criteria outlines in canadian criminal code. Incompetent defendants were less likely to maintain employment and had more serious mental illness than competent defendants: more african-american defendants were found incompetent compared w/ caucasian defendants. How is fitness restored: when defendant is found unfit to stand trial, goal of criminal justice system is get defendant fit, usually through medication. In us, almost all jurisdictions limit ti(cid:373)e a defe(cid:374)da(cid:374)t (cid:373)ay (cid:271)e (cid:862)held(cid:863) as u(cid:374)fit.