NCJ Number
210023
Editor(s)
Lourdes M. Rosado
Date Published
June 2000
Length
83 pages
Annotation
This third of six modules in a Juvenile Court Training Curriculum is designed to help juvenile court personnel obtain high-quality mental health evaluations of juveniles before the court and also interpret the evaluations so they provide maximum assistance to the court in its decisions regarding the juvenile.
Abstract
Juvenile courts frequently make critical decisions that depend on assessments of a juvenile's mental state, such as whether a juvenile is competent to stand trial, his/her mental state at the time of the offense, and the type of treatment and programming likely to provide the most benefit. This module instructs participants in the personnel and tools of mental health evaluations, as it distinguishes the qualifications and functions of various mental health professions, describes the nature and purpose of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV), outlines mental disorders by category, and discusses the diagnosis of conduct disorder in delinquency cases. Step-by-step guidelines are then provided for requesting and reviewing a forensic evaluation. These include how to assess whether a mental health professional is qualified to conduct the needed forensic evaluation; how to write a court order that will guide the evaluator in producing the kind of evaluation that is required in a legal context; what information and history is most relevant to the legal issue to be addressed; the minimum contents of a good evaluation; and criteria for judging the quality of an evaluation. The module contains interactive exercises that apply the guidelines taught. A 20-item bibliography and 8 appendixes with materials for the exercises