RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Correlates of adjudicative competence among psychiatrically impaired juveniles
JF Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
JO J Am Acad Psychiatry Law
FD American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
SP 299
OP 309
VO 31
IS 3
A1 JI Warren
A1 J Aaron
A1 E Ryan
A1 P Chauhan
A1 J DuVal
YR 2003
UL http://jaapl.org/content/31/3/299.abstract
AB This study examines the competence-related abilities of 120 psychiatrically hospitalized male juveniles age 10 to 17 years, using the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Criminal Adjudication (MacCAT-CA), the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale-Anchored (BPRS-A), the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument (MAYSI), the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT), and discharge diagnoses derived from file review. The findings indicate significant age-related differences across adolescence with a relatively strong performance for most of the youths on the competence measure. While intellectual and psychiatric factors were found to contribute substantially to deficits in legal decisional ability, they were modulated by age and the developmental factors associated with it. These findings, replete with caveats concerning both the dimensional structure of competence as measured by the MacCAT-CA and the interplay with the mental status and developmental factors affecting it, underscore the multifarious nature of legal decisional capacity in youths of varying ages. The relevance of these findings to the structuring of restoration services and the application of legal theory to the competence standard in juvenile court are discussed.