The competence-related abilities of adolescent defendants in criminal court
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of PsychiatryDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2006-05-27Keywords
Adolescent*Adolescent Psychology
Adult
Age Factors
Female
*Forensic Psychiatry
*Human Development
Humans
Judgment
Likelihood Functions
Male
*Mental Competency
Multivariate Analysis
Prisoners
Psychological Tests
Reproducibility of Results
United States
Psychiatry
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Increasing numbers of youths are being tried in criminal court because of statutory measures that have decreased the use of judicial review as the primary mechanism for transfer. The relative immaturity of adolescents suggests that transferred youths might have impaired competence-related abilities compared to adults. To test this hypothesis, we compared the competence-related abilities and developmental characteristics of a sample of direct-filed 16-17-year-olds charged in criminal court in the state of Florida (Direct File sample) to a sample of 18-24-year-old adults charged in criminal courts (Adult Offender sample) and to a separate sample of 16-17-year-olds charged in juvenile court (Juvenile Court sample). Results indicated that there were few differences between the Direct File youths and Adult Offenders. The differences that were observed suggested that the Direct Filed youths performed slightly better than the Adult Offender group and the Juvenile Court youths charged in juvenile court. These findings suggest that as a group, 16-17-year-old Direct File adolescents do not have significant deficits in competence-related abilities due to age or immaturity.Source
Law Hum Behav. 2006 Feb;30(1):75-92. Link to article on publisher's siteDOI
10.1007/s10979-006-9005-4Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/45745PubMed ID
16729209Related Resources
Link to Article in PubMedae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1007/s10979-006-9005-4