New Zealand Youth Fitness to Stand Trial: The Impact of Age, Immaturity and Diagnosis on Evaluator Opinions and Court Determinations.
| Autor: | Tan D; Mason Clinic, Regional Forensic Service, Auckland, New Zealand., Friedman SH; Mason Clinic, Regional Forensic Service, Auckland, New Zealand.; Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, New Zealand., Armstrong C; Practice 92, Auckland, New Zealand., Fitzgerald JT; Youth and District Court, Auckland, New Zealand., Neumann C; Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Programme, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Zdroj: | Psychiatry, psychology, and law : an interdisciplinary journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law [Psychiatr Psychol Law] 2017 Nov 27; Vol. 25 (3), pp. 374-385. Date of Electronic Publication: 2017 Nov 27 (Print Publication: 2018). |
| DOI: | 10.1080/13218719.2017.1396867 |
| Abstrakt: | International research suggests that a proportion of youth facing legal charges are at risk of being unfit (or incompetent) to stand trial. In New Zealand, only a fraction of youth coming before Youth Court are referred for fitness to stand trial evaluations. Amid debate surrounding notions that youth offending could be deterred by providing harsher penalties, it is important to consider fitness to stand trial in youth facing criminal proceedings. This study sought to capture a cross-sectional view of how fitness (competency) to stand trial is addressed in the Youth Court, and how evaluator opinions relate to ultimate court findings. A retrospective review of reports for fitness to stand trial in 79 youth consecutively referred to the Regional Youth Forensic Service from 2010 to 2015 was conducted. Data were combined with Youth Court outcomes obtained from the Ministry of Justice. The mean age is 15.6 years. Intellectual disability is associated with unfit opinions and legal findings ( p = .002 and p = .03, respectively), and cases disposed through the Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation) Act 2003. Immaturity itself does not appear to have a significant effect on evaluator opinions or court findings of fitness to stand trial. The majority of the referred youth were both opined and found fit. Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. (© 2017 The Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law.) |
| Databáze: | MEDLINE |
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