Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
J Am Acad Psychiatry Law. 2012;40(1):33-40.
In this issue of The Journal, Dr. Peter Ash offers the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law some ideas on developmentally informed assessment of criminal culpability during adolescence. After highlighting issues that complicate the definition and assessment of criminal culpability, Ash lists 10 constructs that he believes should be carefully considered by forensic clinicians in developing opinions about legal responsibility for a crime committed by a minor. I applaud Ash for beginning a dialogue on the clinical dimension of this topic, and I appreciate his emphasis on the need for developmentally informed assessment of juvenile defendants. In this commentary, I briefly illustrate how the principles of developmental psychopathology can be used to articulate a developmental-ecological model of criminal culpability for use by forensic clinicians in the assessment of younger defendants, as the courts more broadly accept the concept of mitigation of legal responsibility by reason of developmental immaturity.
在本期《美国精神病学与法律杂志》中，Peter Ash 博士就青少年犯罪刑事责任的发展性评估问题，为美国精神病学与法律学院提供了一些思路。在强调了使刑事责任的定义和评估变得复杂的问题之后，Ash 列出了他认为法医临床医生在对未成年人犯罪的法律责任发表意见时应仔细考虑的 10 个概念。我赞扬 Ash 博士开启了这一主题的临床讨论，并赞赏他强调需要对未成年被告进行发展性评估。在这篇评论中，我简要说明了发展心理病理学的原则如何用于阐述犯罪刑事责任的发展-生态模型，以供法医临床医生在评估未成年被告时使用，因为法院更广泛地接受因发展不成熟而减轻法律责任的概念。
