Ch. 3 - Criminal Competencies Flashcards
Ozipko Case
The accused applied for an order under s. 16 of the Criminal Code declaring him not criminally responsible for causing the death of one man and inflicting injuries on two other victims. A psychiatrist diagnosed the accused as having schizotypal personality disorder, a precursor to schizophrenia and having obsessive compulsive disorder. In his opinion the accused did not know what he was doing at the time of the offence and as a result of his psychosis was acting on an urge. The psychiatrist testified that the accused was not malingering.
HELD: The application was granted and the accused was found not criminally responsible. The court found that the accused suffered from a mental disorder at the time he committed the offences and that the disease deprived him of the capacity to make a choice as to whether his actions were right or wrong.
Criminal Law
law that relates to crime and involves prosecution by the government of a person who has been charged with a crime
Adjudicative competency
The umbrella term that encompasses all types of criminal competencies; most commonly referred to as fitness to stand trial
Competency to proceed
a general term that refers to the ability of a defendant to proceed through the criminal adjudication process
Competency to be sentenced
refers to the ability of an accused to understand the sentencing process and the reasons why he or she is being sentenced
Competency to waive the right to counsel (Proceed pro se)
Refers to the ability of a defendant to waive the right to the assistance of counsel and to proceed without an attorney (self-representation)
Fitness to stand trial
refers to the ability of defendants to understand the nature and object of criminal proceedings and to assist counsel in their own defence
Criminal responsibility
refers to the mental state of the accused at the time of the crime
NCRMD (NCR on account of mental disorder)
a defence in which a person is not held criminally responsible for an act committed while suffering from a mental disorder that made the person incapable of appreciating the nature and quality of the act or of knowing that is was wrong; “Insanity defence”
M’Naghten Standard
the historical standard for insanity that allowed defendants to be acquitted if they did not know that what they were doing was wrong
Unstructured Clinical Judgement
one of three approaches to risk assessment, and the lease effective in predicting violence; in this approach clinicians use their best clinical judgement to gauge the likelihood that the examinee will be violent int he future; the risk markers that are taken into consideration vary by clinician, as does the weighting of each of the relevant factors for each specific case
Actuarial decision making
one of three appraches to risk assessment, based on actuarial data
structured professional judgement
one of three approaches to risk assessment; a specific array of risk markers is considered, and clinicians are also able to introduce their professional experience; structured professional judgement instruments are based on research identifying predictors of future risk that do not tell evaluators how risk factors should be weighted or combined and cannot be used to estimate probability of harm
Psycopathy
a personality style epitomized by a blatant disregard for others, both behaviorally and emotionally
Risk Management
crucial component of risk assessment that refers to the strategy of attempting to reduce the probability that an individual will be violent by describing the conditions under which the individual’s risk of violence may increase/decrease
