Abstract The current study examines whether racial differences exist for defendants referred by criminal courts for pretrial psychiatric evaluations across demographic, clinical, and criminal history variables. Compared to Caucasian defendants, African Americans were younger, less educated, diagnosed more frequently with schizophrenia, but less with mood disorders, more likely to have prior felony convictions, and more likely to be in jail at the time of the evaluation. In addition, when controlling for other factors, African American defendants were more likely to be evaluated by forensic examiners as having a mental disease or defect, but racial differences did not exist for opinions regarding the need for inpatient hospitalization, incompetency to stand trial, or responsibility at the time of the crime. Practice recommendations are discussed.

中文翻译：

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种族在法院下令进行的审前精神病学评估中的作用

摘要当前的研究调查了在人口，临床和犯罪历史变量上被刑事法院转介进行审前精神病学评估的被告是否存在种族差异。与高加索被告相比，非洲裔美国人更年轻，教育程度较低，被诊断为精神分裂症的频率更高，但因精神障碍而被诊断的频率更低，更容易被重罪定罪，并且在评估时更可能被判入狱。此外，在控制其他因素时，法医检查人员更可能将非裔美国人的被告评估为患有精神疾病或缺陷，但对于住院患者的住院需求，无力接受审判或犯罪时的责任。讨论了实践建议。