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Assessing Competency to Stand Trial in Criminal Cases & How We Evaluate It.
Written by Dr. Nicole M. Vienna
April 1, 2020
The most commonly referred legal issue for a forensic evaluation is competency to stand trial. Approximately 60,000 defendants are evaluated for competency annually, and the current research shows that this number is gradually increasing over time (Zapf, Roesch, & Pirelli, 2014). The legal standard for competency to stand trial was established in Dusky v. United States (1960) and every state has adopted a variation of......Read More