Social Worker Assessments of Competency to Stand Trial

Abstract

This article focuses on an expanding role for social workers conducting assessments of competency to stand trial. This pretrial assessment is the most common form of pretrial forensic evaluations. Although a handful of states explicitly allow social workers to conduct these evaluations, it is suggested that this is a role in which social workers could have a greater role as the field of forensic social work develops. It is suggested that this role can be enhanced through the development of forensic specialty guidelines. The article reviews competency laws and assessment procedures and provides an overview of forensic assessment instruments that can be used in the evaluation of competency to stand trial. The special circumstances surrounding evaluations of competency in juvenile court are also examined.

Notes

¹Other countries, such as Canada, are more restrictive. For example, Canadian law provides that only physicians (typically psychiatrists) can conduct competency (referred to as fitness in Canada) to stand trial evaluations (Viljoen, Roesch, Ogloff, & Zapf, 2003), although a statutory change opens the possibility of evaluations by psychologists if approved by the Attorney General of a province.

²As one of his suggested practice standards, Munson (2011) recommended that “The forensic social worker should not make any diagnosis, assessment, or render an opinion about a person the forensic social worker has not interviewed or evaluated.” (p. 55).