Dr. Cox and Megan Kopkin Published in Journal of Forensic Psychology: Research and Practice!4/17/2017 Cox, J., Brodsky, S.L., *Remmel, R.J., *Applegate, K., & *Kopkin, M.R. (2017). The “No-Disorder” Capital Defendant: Defining and Exploring a Novel Construct. Journal of Forensic Psychology: Research and Practice, 17, 179-198.
The United States Supreme Court’s pivotal ruling in Lockett v. Ohio required Courts to be open to consider everything about a defendant’s mental health and background when deliberating the appropriateness of a death penalty verdict. When mental health experts testify in this context, this testimony generally includes evidence concerning the defendant’s psychopathology, serious substance abuse, or likelihood for future dangerousness. However, anecdotal accounts suggest another type of defendant occasionally stands trial for capital murder: the relatively asymptomatic, “no-disorder” individual. This defendant lacks significant psychopathology or severe personality pathology, and is usually psychologically unremarkable. This article explores the concept of the no-disorder capital defendant by defining the construct and differentiating this individual from the more typical capital defendant. We also discuss potential implications regarding mental health testimony on “no-diagnosis” defendants. Finally, directions for future research with this construct are explored.
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Cox, J., Stinar, L.D., Foster, E.E. (2017). On being a novice forensic evaluator: Reflections for early career forensic psychologists. Psychological Injury and Law, 10, 191-195.
Previous research has considered the psychologist’s professional transition from trainee to independent practitioner. However, this work has generally focused on the experiences of psychotherapists or general psychologists. The purpose of the current commentary is to reflect on the experiences of early professional forensic evaluators. This commentary addresses four specific areas including difficulties with adversarial allegiance, perceptions of professional competency, balancing responsibilities associated with “expert” status, and roadblocks to standard test administration and scoring. When applicable, we reference empirical literature and professional ethical guidelines. We also offer suggestions for coping with these experiences. We hope this commentary will normalize these experiences for other early career evaluators as well as aid graduate students’ transition into the independent evaluator role. Smith, S.T., Cox, J., Mowle, E., & Edens, J.F. (2017). Intentional inattention: Detecting feigned Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder on the Personality Assessment Inventory. Psychological Assessment, 29, 1447-1457.
Given the increasing number of college students seeking Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnoses as well as the potential secondary gains associated with this disorder (e.g., access to stimulant medication, academic accommodations), the detection of malingered symptom presentations in this population is a major concern. The present study examined the ability of validity indicators on the widely used Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) to distinguish between individuals experiencing genuine ADHD symptoms and individuals instructed to present with ADHD symptomatology for secondary gain. Sixty-six participants who successfully simulated ADHD (based on elevations on the Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating Scale; Conners, Erhardt, & Sparrow, 1998) were compared with a sample of undergraduate students meeting diagnostic criteria for ADHD (N = 22) and an archival sample of adults who received an ADHD diagnosis at a university psychology clinic following a comprehensive psychological evaluation (N = 41). Successful simulators obtained significantly higher scores on all relevant PAI validity indicators compared with the clinical and archival comparison samples, with the Rogers Discriminant Function demonstrating the highest predictive accuracy (AUC = .86). Traditional cut scores on the Negative Impression (NIM) validity scale used to designate probable malingering, however, were not sensitive to simulated ADHD symptoms, although they did demonstrate excellent specificity. The PAI may be informative as an indicator of potentially exaggerated or malingered symptom presentation, but alternative cut scores for symptom validity indicators may be necessary to maximize its utility in these particular types of psychological evaluations. Cox, J. & *Kopkin, M.R. (2016). Defendant and victim sex, sexism, and decision making in an ambiguous assault case. Women & Criminal Justice, 26, 381-393.
The aim of the present study was to better understand how the sex of a defendant and of a victim in an ambiguous assault case impact juror verdicts and perceptions of the defendant. Juror sexist attitudes and the impact of these beliefs on decision making were also investigated. Mock jurors completed a measure of sexist attitudes and read a brief summary of an assault case in which the sexes of the defendant and victim were manipulated. Participants then rendered a verdict and provided sentencing recommendations. Mock jurors recommended the harshest sentence for the male defendant who assaulted a female victim. However, the female defendant, regardless of victim sex, was perceived as more psychopathic. Results are discussed in terms of the selective chivalry theory of sexism. Cox, J., Edens, J.F., Rulseh, A., & Clark, J.W. (2016). Juror perceptions of psychopathy interpersonal-affective traits predict sentence severity in a white collar criminal case. Psychology, Crime & Law, 22, 1-20.
Recent research has demonstrated jurors’ perceptions of a defendant’s psychopathic traits may impact their sentencing recommendations in death penalty and sexually violent predator civil commitment trials. Given the increasing media attention on white-collar crimes, the huge economic impact of such crimes on society, and the theoretical relationship between psychopathy and this type of crime, this research sought to investigate how juror perceptions of a white-collar defendant’s psychopathic traits may influence sentencing recommendations. Jury-eligible community members were given a brief description of a white-collar crime and asked to provide the judge with sentencing recommendations. Results largely supported previous findings in that perceiving a defendant to be highly psychopathic, particularly in terms of affective traits, predicted more punitive sentencing recommendations. Specifically, perceptions of the defendant’s remorselessness, lack of empathy, and failure to accept responsibility incrementally predicted harsher sentencing recommendations. These data lend support to the hypothesis that lay perceptions of psychopathic traits influence sentencing recommendations in white-collar criminal cases. Edens, J.F., Cox, J., Smith, S.T., DeMatteo, D.S., Sorman, K. (2015). How reliable are Psychopathy Checklist-Revised scores in Canadian criminal trials? A case law review. Psychological Assessment, 27, 447-456.
The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 2003) is a professional rating scale that enjoys widespread use in forensic and correctional settings, primarily as a tool to inform risk assessments in a variety of types of cases (e.g., parole determinations, sexually violent predator [SVP] civil commitment). Although widely described as “reliable and valid” in research reports, several recent field studies have suggested that PCL-R scores provided by examiners in forensic cases are significantly less reliable than the interrater reliability values reported in research studies. Most of these field studies, however, have had small samples and only examined SVP civil commitment cases. This study builds on existing research by examining the reliability of PCL-R scores provided by forensic examiners in a much more extensive sample of Canadian criminal cases. Using the LexisNexis database, we identified 102 cases in which at least 2 scores were reported (of 257 total PCL-R scores). The single-rater intraclass correlation coefficient (ICCA1) was .59, indicating that a large percentage of the variance in individual scores was attributable to some form of error. ICC values were somewhat higher for sexual offending cases (.66) than they were for nonsexual offending cases (.46), indicating that poor interrater reliability was not restricted specifically to the assessment of sexual offenders. These and earlier findings concerning field reliability in legal cases suggest that the standard error of measurement for PCL-R scores that are provided to the courts is likely to be much larger than the value of 2.90 reported in the instrument’s manual. |
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