FORENSIC NEUROPSYCHOLOGY

Forensic neuropsychological examinations to detect malingering in patients with neurocognitive, physical, and psychological dysfunction have tremendous social, legal, and economic importance. Thousands of studies have been published to develop and validate methods to forensically detect malingering based largely on approximately 50 validity tests, including embedded and stand-alone performance and symptom validity tests. This is Part II of a two-part review of statistical and methodological issues in the forensic prediction of malingering based on validity tests...

Neuropsychologists have long understood that valid examinee performance is needed in order to understand the constructs of interest that are at the heart of clinical and forensic evaluations. The assessment of performance validity has evolved over time, from very rudimentary and subjective clinical impressions of examinee task engagement to psychometrically based, multi-method, algorithm-driven, and consensus-informed approaches. Christoph Leonhard has further advanced that evolution in a meaningful way, forcing us to reconsider much of what we thought we knew about the psychometric assessment of performance validity...

In the practice of psychological assessment there have been warnings for decades by the American Psychological Association (APA), the National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN), other associations, and test vendors, against the disclosure of test raw data and test materials. Psychological assessment occurs across several different practice environments, and test raw data is a particularly sensitive aspect of practice considering what it implicitly represents about a client/patient, and this concept is further developed in this paper...

The number of elderly delinquent individuals living in prisons and forensic hospitals is increasing. For both settings, complex needs have been described for the elderly related to age-related changes and frequent somatic disorders as well as mental disorders, primarily depressive symptoms.. One of the biggest challenges are cognitive impairments which have been described for both groups, probably not least due to frequent risk factors (e.g., substance abuse, depressive symptoms). Given that the group of forensic patients has a manifest mental illness, which is usually treated with psychopharmaceuticals, the question arises as to what extent cognitive deficits are more frequent here...

In their article, Aveson and colleagues postulate a model for understanding the neurocognitive underpinnings of competence to stand trial, and they present evidence to support that model for two specific facets: social intelligence and auditory verbal (episodic) memory. This commentary attempts to extend those findings by outlining specific interventions and assessment methods in the inpatient restoration setting that focus on strengthening these capacities and connecting them to the psycho legal context. It echoes the work of Aveson et al...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine a sample (n = 150) of elderly offenders to analyse the psychiatric, medical, demographic, criminal and if available neuropsychological test characteristics and criminal responsibility. METHOD: Data were gathered through a retrospective chart review of applicants aged 65 and over who were referred for determination of criminal responsibility from 2014 to 2019 at the Observation Department of Council of Forensic Medicine (Adli Tip Kurumu Baskanligi, Gözlem İhtisas Dairesi) who were evaluated under inpatient status by law...

OBJECTIVES: The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) is a commonly used clinical measure; however, it contains no method to assess validity of self-report. The primary objective of this research was to examine the possibility of cut scores on the BDI-II indicating possible invalid symptom report in forensic neuropsychological evaluations. Secondary objectives were to explore the utility of education specific cut scores and the effects of the criterion for invalid symptom report. METHODS: Two hundred and seventeen early retirement claimants (age range 19-64 years) presenting for forensic neuropsychological examination were considered for this study...

Objective: Examination of current tele-neuropsychology (teleNP) practices and attitudes within the clinical neuropsychology community, conducted September - November 2022. Method: Clinical neuropsychologists in U.S. and U.S. territories were invited to participate in an online survey of teleNP practices. The final sample consisted of 326 neuropsychologists. Results: Forty-six percent of the sample indicated they currently practice teleNP. Fourteen percent of the sample not currently practicing teleNP were considering practicing teleNP...

UNLABELLED: Severe mental disorder (SMD) includes people with long-term mental disorders, disability and social dysfunction. The mental capacity evaluation of the people has been a key aspect in legislative systems around the world and different proposals have been made. In countries like Spain, until 2021, the mental capacity of individuals was assessed by means of legal proceedings. In the last years, there has been a notable increase in the number of claims for legal incapacity, but no data are available on the total number of persons with CM, neither on the specific pathologies, or clinical and cognitive profiles...

Executive function encompasses multiple processes (e.g. regulating emotions, managing behaviours, problem-solving) essential in daily living. A growing body of neuropsychological research shows a relationship between executive dysfunction and criminal behaviour. However, is executive functioning relevant to sentence management? We examined relationships between self-reported executive functioning and community supervision sentence compliance. Sixty-four individuals serving community-based supervision sentences completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version, and their compliance data for six months were collected from probation officer notes...

This study sought to delineate the neuropsychological processes that undergird the psycho-legal concept of competency to stand trial (CST). Accordingly, we retrospectively examined the relationship between clinical judgments of competence or incompetence of defendants committed to a maximum-security psychiatric facility and neuropsychological measures of cognitive and social intelligence and declarative memory. Results indicated that both groups (competent and incompetent) showed similar levels of depressed cognitive intelligence with Wechsler full-scale IQ levels falling in the upper end of the borderline range...

Objective: The present study was the first to investigate the test performance and symptom reports of individuals who engage in both over-reporting (i.e., exaggerating or fabricating symptoms) and under-reporting (i.e., exaggerating positive qualities or denying shortcomings) in the context of a forensic evaluation. We focused on comparing individuals who over- and under-reported (OR + UR) with those who only over-reported (OR-only) on the MMPI-3. Method: Using a disability claimant sample referred for comprehensive psychological evaluations ( n  = 848), the present study first determined the rates of possible over-reporting (MMPI-3 F ≥ 75 T, Fp ≥ 70 T, Fs ≥ 100 T, or FBS or RBS ≥ 90 T) with ( n  = 42) and without ( n  = 332) under-reporting (L ≥ 65 T)...

Objective: Performance Validity Tests (PVTs) have been used to identify non-credible performance in clinical, medicolegal, forensic, and, more recently, academic settings. The inclusion of PVTs when administering psychoeducational assessments is essential given that specific accommodation such as flexible deadlines and increased writing time can provide an external incentive for students without disabilities to feign symptoms. Method: The present study used archival data to establish base rates of non-credible performance in a sample of post-secondary students (n = 1045) who underwent a comprehensive psychoeducational evaluation for the purposes of obtaining academic accommodations...

The aim of this study is to evaluate factors related to cessation of dangerousness of individuals under safety measures, through the study of psychiatric reports. This is a cross-sectional study, conducted through a retrospective analysis of expert psychiatric dangerousness cessation reports issued by the Federal District Coroner's Office, Brasília, Brazil. By examining official files, information was extracted from the reports (socio-demographic data, clinical characteristics, type of crime, historical characteristics and the search for items related to risk assessment present in instruments such as Historical, Clinical and Risk Management [HCR-20], Psychopathy Checklist - Revised [PCL-R], Two-Tiered Violence Risk Scale [TTV], Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability [START] and others) and submitted to statistical analysis and then compared to other studies on the subject...

Several cases of COVID-19-related mental disorders have emerged during the pandemic. In a case of femicide that occurred in Italy during the first phase of the pandemic, coinciding with a national lockdown, a discrepancy arose among forensic psychiatry experts, particularly toward the diagnosis of Brief Psychotic Disorder (BPD) related to COVID-19. We aimed to discuss the evaluation of the case through an integration of information and a literature review on comparable reported cases. An analysis of the diagnosis of brief acute psychosis was then performed, as well as a mini-review on cases of COVID-19-related psychosis...

The Trauma Symptom Inventory-Second Edition (TSI-2) is garnering research interest as a symptom validity test in the evaluation of trauma-related disorders. However, there has been limited empirical validation of its validity scales in clinical and forensic real-world settings. This study evaluated the ability of the TSI-2 Atypical Response (ATR) scale to discriminate response bias in cognitive performance and symptom reporting in a large sample of disability and compensation-seeking claimants. This retrospective chart review included 296 adults with a known history of trauma exposure or claimed trauma-related psychological injury who underwent neuropsychological and/or comprehensive psychological assessment in a private neuropsychology clinic...

Malingering of cognitive difficulties constitutes a major issue in psychiatric forensic settings. Here, we present a selective literature review related to the topic of cognitive malingering, psychopathology and their possible connections. Furthermore, we report a single case study of a 60-year-old man with a long and ongoing judicial history who exhibits a suspicious multi-domain neurocognitive disorder with significant reduction of autonomy in daily living, alongside a longtime history of depressive symptoms...

Objective: The present study evaluated the function of four cognitive, symptom validity scales on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), the Cognitive Bias Scale (CBS) and the Cognitive Bias Scale of Scales (CB-SOS) 1, 2, and 3 in a sample of Veterans who volunteered for a study of neurocognitive functioning. Method: 371 Veterans (88.1% male, 66.1% White) completed a battery including the Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test (M-FAST), the Word Memory Test (WMT), and the PAI. Independent samples t -tests compared mean differences on cognitive bias scales between valid and invalid groups on the M-FAST and WMT...

Introduction: This study aims to investigate the characteristic features of sexual abuse of children with a focus on psychiatric consequences and other associated elements. Methods: We evaluated 1785 child sexual abuse cases who were referred to the Ondokuz Mayis University Faculty of Medicine Forensic Medicine Department for examination and forensic reports during the 14-year period between 2006 - 2019. The study involved the examination of the patient files/records of victims of child sexual abuse...

OBJECTIVE: Few studies have examined the use of embedded validity indicators (EVIs) in criminal-forensic practice settings, where judgements regarding performance validity can carry severe consequences for the individual and society. This study sought to examine how various EVIs perform in criminal defendant populations, and determine relationships between EVI scores and intrapersonal variables thought to influence performance validity. METHOD: Performance on 16 empirically established EVI cutoffs were examined in a sample of 164 criminal defendants with valid performance who were referred for forensic neuropsychological evaluation...