Edens John F, Colwell Lori H, Desforges Donna M, Fernandez Krissie
Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, USA.
Behav Sci Law. 2005;23(5):603-25. doi: 10.1002/bsl.660.
Controversy surrounds the use of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (Hare, 1991, 2003) in capital murder cases, where it has been introduced to support prosecution claims that a defendant represents a "continuing threat to society". Although widely presumed to have a prejudicial impact (e.g., American Psychological Association, 2004), little is known about how the lay public reacts to data derived from ostensibly stigmatizing assessment instruments such as the PCL-R. The present study examined the effect of psychopathy data on layperson attitudes by having 203 undergraduates review a capital murder case where the results of the defendant's psychological evaluation were experimentally manipulated. When expert testimony described the defendant as psychopathic, a much larger percentage of participants supported a death sentence (60%) than when testimony indicated that he was psychotic (30%) or not mentally disordered (38%). Interestingly, participant ratings of how psychopathic they perceived the defendant to be--regardless of the testimony condition to which they had been assigned--also predicted support for a death sentence. Given the limited probative value of the PCL-R in capital cases and the prejudicial nature of the effects noted in this study, we recommend that forensic examiners avoid using it in these trials.
围绕《哈雷精神病态量表修订版》（Hare，1991年、2003年）在死刑谋杀案中的使用存在争议，在这类案件中，该量表被用来支持检方关于被告对社会构成“持续威胁”的说法。尽管普遍认为其具有偏见性影响（例如，美国心理学会，2004年），但对于普通公众如何看待来自诸如PCL-R这类表面上带有污名化色彩的评估工具的数据，人们却知之甚少。本研究通过让203名本科生审查一起死刑谋杀案来检验精神病态数据对普通人态度的影响，在该案件中，被告心理评估的结果被进行了实验性操纵。当专家证词将被告描述为精神病态时，支持判处死刑的参与者比例（60%）比证词表明他患有精神病（30%）或没有精神障碍（38%）时要高得多。有趣的是，参与者对他们所认为的被告精神病态程度的评分——无论他们被分配到哪种证词条件下——也预测了对判处死刑的支持。鉴于PCL-R在死刑案件中的证明价值有限，以及本研究中所指出的影响具有偏见性，我们建议法医鉴定人员在这些审判中避免使用它。
