Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:1243-1247
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
Consequences of surveillance of the forensic psychiatric examination: an overview
RL Goldstein
Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.
Lawyers have argued that surveillance of the forensic psychiatric
examination (either direct observation by a lawyer or recording of the
examination) is necessary under certain circumstances to protect clients'
rights and ensure more accurate reporting of the findings. Psychiatrists
are concerned that surveillance could disrupt such examinations and impair
their validity. The author reviews and extrapolates from available data on
the effects of tape recording on clinical examinations and psychotherapy
and concludes that the current state of scientific knowledge does not allow
confident assessment of whether the perceived need for surveillance
outweighs the possible impairment of the validity of forensic psychiatric
examinations.
