Assessing Competency - Essay Example

This procedure usually has a standard format for conducting pre-sentencing psychological evaluation. The format in its lowest level incorporates reviewing of all the available evidence of the committed crime that includes data obtained by a discovery process. Secondly, conducting clinical interview and reviewing all the psychological history of the defendant, including past records on psychological treatment, or collateral data and past criminal offense. Finally, psychological testing is conducted to examine the presence of any psychological disorders, personal characteristics, and psychopath that might have interfered with the rational decision-making or influenced his or her perception to judgment.

Before suspects are charged in the court of law, they must be approved to be substantially capable of understanding the nature of the legal proceeding filled against them, or be cable of participating in the case with a sober mind. A defendant who meets all these requirements is regarded as being legally competent to stand trial before the court or the judge (Grisso & Borum, 2003). Therefore, there are several accounts of physical disorder or mental retardation that must be evaluated before a person is taken for a court trial or proceeding.

It is the responsibility of forensic psychologists to determine the competency of the defendant to stand trial (Hayman & Ulschak, 2001). Forensic psychologists usually analyze the circumstances that might have led to a given crime, and advice the judge or jury on whether the defendant committed the crime purposefully, or the crime has been influenced by mental disorder (Hayman & Ulschak, 2001). Psychologists always determine whether the crime was committed out of free will or not. Criminal offenses that are committed by the defendants out of their free choice amount to competency for court trial, otherwise the person is considered incompetence to stand trial.

There are several ways of determining competency and mental state of a defendant. However, medical life history of the defendant provides substantial information for assessing their competencies. The mental status of a defendant during the time of a crime is a factor to consider when evaluating the competency of the defendant to face the jury or judge for trial. Therefore, it is the responsibility of a forensic psychologist to determine the mental soundness of the defendant after they are involved in any (Roesch & Ed, 2009).

Competency evaluation involves a comprehensive assessment of the defendant with the aim of determining their mental status as at the time of the crime. This can only be achieved by interviewing the defendant on whether he or she appreciates the wrongfulness of the crime committed or not (Roesch & Ed, 2009). This evaluation usually incorporates a thoughtful, and a thorough review of the defendant’s records including psychiatric records. This type of evaluation is also referred to as sanity evolution, and it involves interviewing the victim.

If the victim admits that he or she appreciates the wrongfulness of the committed crime, such persons may be considered competency for trial (Grisso & Borum, 2003). Conditional release evaluation is a factor that is considered for competency evaluation. In this evaluation method, the defendant is evaluated for his appropriateness to be released back into the society after attending forensic psychiatric hospital (Ackerman & Ackerman , 2010).