AUTHOR=Acklin Marvin W. , Velasquez Joseph P. 

TITLE=Improving Criminal Responsibility Determinations Using Structured Professional Judgment

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.700991

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2021.700991

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Forensic psychologists commonly utilize unstructured clinical judgment in aggregating clinical and forensic information in forming opinions. Unstructured clinical judgment is prone to evaluator bias and suboptimal levels of inter-rater reliability. Mechanical or actuarial predictive methods have been proposed as potential remedies. Following a review of canonical forensic assessment models, the prevalence of bias in forensic judgments, including adversarial allegiance, and inter-rater agreement in criminal responsibility determinations, this article presents a structured professional judgment (SPJ) model for criminal responsibility evaluations. A user-friendly methodology is described, applying procedural checklist,  application of a mental state at time of the offense (MSO) model using structured data collection methods and mechanical (algorithmic) prediction, and post hoc hypothesis testing. A case study describes application of the procedural and criminal responsibility decision model in a complex homicide case.