Competency for Trial: A Screening Instrument

¹ Lecturer on Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 58 Fenwood Rd., Boston, Mass. 02115
² Associate in Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 58 Fenwood Rd., Boston, Mass. 02115
³ Lecturer on Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 58 Fenwood Rd., Boston, Mass. 02115

The process of determining an accused person's competence to stand trial often causes indefinite commitment to mental hospitals. The authors administered the Competency Screening Test, a device for determining competency, to 43 men who had been referred to a state hospital for determination of competency to stand trial. The majority who scored low on the test were indefinitely committed, while the majority who scored high were returned for trial. The test seems to facilitate screening procedures and avoids hospitalization of competent persons.

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