Abstract

The Competence Assessment for Standing Trial for Defendants with Mental Retardation (CAST-MR) was developed to assess competence to stand trial in defendants with Intellectual Disability. Although it remains the only validated instrument for this population, previous research has suggested it is rarely used by forensic examiners, a finding our survey of legal cases confirms. Initial validation studies provided some support for the instrument’s reliability and validity. However, in both these and subsequent studies, there were significant limitations with respect to the size and representativeness of study samples, and therefore the associated interpretation of scores, such that questions remain as to whether the tool adequately assesses competence to stand trial in this population. In this paper, we review the research on the CAST-MR, discuss the strengths and limitations of the instrument, and debate its legal admissibility.

摘要

智障被告人受审能力评估 (CAST-MR) 旨在评估智障被告人受审的能力。尽管它仍然是该人群唯一经过验证的工具，但之前的研究表明，法医审查员很少使用它，我们对法律案件的调查证实了这一发现。初步验证研究为该工具的可靠性和有效性提供了一些支持。然而，在这些研究和随后的研究中，研究样本的大小和代表性存在重大限制，因此对分数的相关解释存在很大限制，因此问题仍然存在，即该工具是否充分评估了在该人群中受审的能力. 在本文中，我们回顾了关于 CAST-MR 的研究，