Assessing Homicidal Mental States at the Time of Offense II: The 2011 Norway Massacre: The 1st forensic psychiatric examination.
The first examination conducted by two psychiatrists included 13 interviews (36 hours total), review of police interrogations, and collateral interview with Breivik’s mother. They coded the material using the Norwegian version of the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview Plus for ICD-10, and selected modules of the Norwegian version of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-IV). Based […]
Assessing Homicidal Mental States at the Time of Offense I: The 2011 Norway Massacre: Background.
As a court appointed mental examiner, I am regularly asked to perform mental state at the time of the offense (MSO) examinations when the court must make a determination of criminal responsibility. A significant number of these cases involve the killing of another human being. High profile cases are often instructive for mental examiners. The […]
Rind controversy redux: Psychological sequelae of adult-child sexual contact.
Forensic psychologists may be called upon to render opinions concerning psychological harm following adult-child sexual contact. Rind et al. (1998) examined assumed properties of CSA and found that psychological harm is variable. They found that family environment was consistently confounded with CSA, and explained considerably more adjustment variance than CSA. CSA-adjustment relations generally became nonsignificant […]
Voluntariness of Confessions
Forensic psychologists working in criminal proceedings must be acquainted with the law and behavioral science of confessions. Voluntariness of confessions is a deep mainstay of confession law, reflected in the Miranda decision. Miranda requires that a confession be voluntary, knowing, and intelligent, though discrimination between the latter two prongs is murky. On the issue of […]