An Evaluation of Legal Outcome following Pretrial Forensic Assessment
This paper constitutes the first stage of data analysis in a larger controlled study designed to assess the effect of a forensic psychiatric assessment on legal disposition defined in three ways: 1. the number of days spent in custody prior to trial; 2. the number of sentenced days of incarceration;...
Published in: | The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/070674379403900308 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/070674379403900308 |
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crsagepubl:10.1177/070674379403900308 2023-05-15T16:55:21+02:00 An Evaluation of Legal Outcome following Pretrial Forensic Assessment Arboleda-Flórez, J. Holley, H.L. Williams, J. Crisanti, A. 1994 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/070674379403900308 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/070674379403900308 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry volume 39, issue 3, page 161-167 ISSN 0706-7437 1497-0015 Psychiatry and Mental health journal-article 1994 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/070674379403900308 2022-04-14T04:45:55Z This paper constitutes the first stage of data analysis in a larger controlled study designed to assess the effect of a forensic psychiatric assessment on legal disposition defined in three ways: 1. the number of days spent in custody prior to trial; 2. the number of sentenced days of incarceration; and 3. the conviction rate. A historical cohort design was used to follow two cohorts of individuals remanded, pretrial, to Southern Alberta Provincial Correctional Centres between 1988 and 1989. The study cohort consisted of all offenders detained who received a forensic psychiatric assessment. The comparison cohort consisted of a random sample of persons detained who did not undergo a forensic assessment. Because of small numbers, individuals below the age of 18 and women were excluded from study. This paper compares socio-legal characteristics of study and comparison subjects in order to better understand forensic psychiatric referral patterns and identify potentially confounding factors that would need to be controlled in subsequent analyses of legal outcomes. No differences were noted with respect to educational level but forensic subjects were found to be slightly older (average of 31 years compared to 29 years). Aboriginal peoples (Native Indian, Inuit and Metis) were three times more common among non-forensic offenders. Forensic patients were more likely to have had a prior forensic assessment but less likely to have a prior criminal detention. In addition, forensic patients were three times more likely to be charged with a crime against a person and counted more offenses in the target episode than comparison subjects. The under-representation of Aboriginal peoples in the forensic cohort is discussed in light of the knowledge that mental illnesses are over-represented among native peoples and Aboriginal peoples are over-represented among criminal populations. The next phase of the analysis will compare legal outcomes controlling for differences in age, ethnicity, prior forensic assessments, prior detentions and violent index crimes. Article in Journal/Newspaper inuit SAGE Publications (via Crossref) Indian The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 39 3 161 167 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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SAGE Publications (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crsagepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Psychiatry and Mental health |
spellingShingle |
Psychiatry and Mental health Arboleda-Flórez, J. Holley, H.L. Williams, J. Crisanti, A. An Evaluation of Legal Outcome following Pretrial Forensic Assessment |
topic_facet |
Psychiatry and Mental health |
description |
This paper constitutes the first stage of data analysis in a larger controlled study designed to assess the effect of a forensic psychiatric assessment on legal disposition defined in three ways: 1. the number of days spent in custody prior to trial; 2. the number of sentenced days of incarceration; and 3. the conviction rate. A historical cohort design was used to follow two cohorts of individuals remanded, pretrial, to Southern Alberta Provincial Correctional Centres between 1988 and 1989. The study cohort consisted of all offenders detained who received a forensic psychiatric assessment. The comparison cohort consisted of a random sample of persons detained who did not undergo a forensic assessment. Because of small numbers, individuals below the age of 18 and women were excluded from study. This paper compares socio-legal characteristics of study and comparison subjects in order to better understand forensic psychiatric referral patterns and identify potentially confounding factors that would need to be controlled in subsequent analyses of legal outcomes. No differences were noted with respect to educational level but forensic subjects were found to be slightly older (average of 31 years compared to 29 years). Aboriginal peoples (Native Indian, Inuit and Metis) were three times more common among non-forensic offenders. Forensic patients were more likely to have had a prior forensic assessment but less likely to have a prior criminal detention. In addition, forensic patients were three times more likely to be charged with a crime against a person and counted more offenses in the target episode than comparison subjects. The under-representation of Aboriginal peoples in the forensic cohort is discussed in light of the knowledge that mental illnesses are over-represented among native peoples and Aboriginal peoples are over-represented among criminal populations. The next phase of the analysis will compare legal outcomes controlling for differences in age, ethnicity, prior forensic assessments, prior detentions and violent index crimes. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Arboleda-Flórez, J. Holley, H.L. Williams, J. Crisanti, A. |
author_facet |
Arboleda-Flórez, J. Holley, H.L. Williams, J. Crisanti, A. |
author_sort |
Arboleda-Flórez, J. |
title |
An Evaluation of Legal Outcome following Pretrial Forensic Assessment |
title_short |
An Evaluation of Legal Outcome following Pretrial Forensic Assessment |
title_full |
An Evaluation of Legal Outcome following Pretrial Forensic Assessment |
title_fullStr |
An Evaluation of Legal Outcome following Pretrial Forensic Assessment |
title_full_unstemmed |
An Evaluation of Legal Outcome following Pretrial Forensic Assessment |
title_sort |
evaluation of legal outcome following pretrial forensic assessment |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
1994 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/070674379403900308 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/070674379403900308 |
geographic |
Indian |
geographic_facet |
Indian |
genre |
inuit |
genre_facet |
inuit |
op_source |
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry volume 39, issue 3, page 161-167 ISSN 0706-7437 1497-0015 |
op_rights |
http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/070674379403900308 |
container_title |
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry |
container_volume |
39 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
161 |
op_container_end_page |
167 |
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1766046353179279360 |