Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Criminal Justice Review
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Roesch, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Competency to Stand Trial and Court Outcome

Ronald Roesch

Department of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6

Comparisons of the disposition of charges against competent and initially incompetent (but returned to court as competent) defendants revealed few significant differences. The most consistent differences were found for defendants charged with violent crimes, including murder and assault. Incompetent defendants charged with these offenses were significantly more likely to befound innocent, usually the result of dismissal of charges. Once convicted, however, the fact that a defendant had previously been found incompetent, and had spent several years on the average in a state hospital, had little influence on the type and length of sentence. Comparison of type of offense suggested that the competency issue was more likely to be raised when the charges and consequences were more severe, especially when the probability of conviction was high. It was also found that mental health reports to the court contained recommendations not related to the question of competency, including recommendations for dismissal of charges. It was argued that the inclusion of these recommendations further reinforced the inappropriate use of the competency procedures by defense attorneys.

Criminal Justice Review, Vol. 3, No. 2, 45-56 (1978)
DOI: 10.1177/073401687800300206
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?