Miller R D, Olin J, Beven G, Covey J
Program for Forensic Psychiatry, Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver 80262, USA.
Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law. 1995;23(1):93-103.
Previous articles have addressed the ethical and legal issues involved when private psychiatrists perform forensic evaluations on criminal defendants before the defendants have access to counsel; but there have been few studies addressing evaluations requested through public facilities and by clinicians other than psychiatrists. The authors present the results of a detailed study of defendants admitted for evaluations of competency to proceed to a forensic inpatient unit in one state, as well as data from a national survey of state forensic facilities. The studies were designed to measure the incidence of unrepresented defendants in a population referred for competency evaluation, as well as to examine the reasons for such occurrences. The data reveal that court-ordered evaluations of unrepresented defendants are rare, but continue to exist.
此前已有文章探讨了私人精神病医生在刑事被告获得律师帮助之前对其进行法医评估时所涉及的伦理和法律问题；但针对通过公共机构以及除精神病医生之外的临床医生所要求进行的评估，相关研究却很少。作者呈现了对某一州被送往法医住院部进行诉讼能力评估的被告的详细研究结果，以及一项对州法医机构的全国性调查数据。这些研究旨在衡量在被转介进行诉讼能力评估的人群中无律师代表的被告的发生率，并探究此类情况发生的原因。数据显示，法院下令对无律师代表的被告进行评估的情况很少见，但仍有存在。
