Publikation: Expert opinions on criminal law cases in Switzerland : an empirical pilot study
Dateien
Datum
Autor:innen
Herausgeber:innen
ISSN der Zeitschrift
Electronic ISSN
ISBN
Bibliografische Daten
Verlag
Schriftenreihe
Auflagebezeichnung
URI (zitierfähiger Link)
DOI (zitierfähiger Link)
Internationale Patentnummer
Link zur Lizenz
Angaben zur Forschungsförderung
Projekt
Open Access-Veröffentlichung
Sammlungen
Core Facility der Universität Konstanz
Titel in einer weiteren Sprache
Publikationstyp
Publikationsstatus
Erschienen in
Zusammenfassung
BACKGROUND Criminal courts of law rely on forensic psychiatric/psychological reports when clarifying legal questions of culpability, dangerousness, and the need for therapeutic measures for offenders. Incorrect decisions owing to a lack of expert report quality and comprehensibility can have serious consequences for potential victims, offenders themselves, or societal use of resources. In this pilot study, we started from the hypothesis that forensic psychiatric/psychological reports meet the minimum requirements for legally admissible expert opinions. METHODS Within the framework of assessment by the Concordat Expert Commission of Northwestern and Central Switzerland, 58 adult criminal law reports were randomly selected. Two researchers extracted and analyzed standardized data descriptively. For quality assurance, they followed the extended codebook of the Research and Development Department of the Zürich Office of Corrections and Reintegration. RESULTS Psychopathological findings accounted for only 1% of the reports, which seemed problematic considering that these findings reflect the personality traits of offenders. Furthermore, only 7% of offenders underwent physical examinations, and the reasons for not performing physical examinations were noted in fewer than half of these offenders. Of 26 sexual offenders, only one was physically assessed. Additional imaging or neurophysiological examinations (e.g. electroencephalogram) were conducted in only one offender. Furthermore, published baseline recidivism rates were used in only 37.9% of the reports. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study suggest that current forensic psychiatric assessment is deficient. The infrequent use of published recidivism rates for risk communication denies prosecutors and judges solid reference values for the actual recidivism probability. Moving away from somatic medicine contradicts the federal court judgment, which disqualifies psychologists from providing a forensic report owing to their lack of expertise in physical examination. The authors recommend the multidisciplinary involvement of forensic psychiatrists and psychologists and, in certain cases, of specialists in somatic medicine to produce accurate and well-founded reports.
Zusammenfassung in einer weiteren Sprache
Fachgebiet (DDC)
Schlagwörter
Konferenz
Rezension
Zitieren
ISO 690
BEVILACQUA, Leonie, Adriano CALFISCH, Jérôme ENDRASS, Astrid ROSSEGGER, Henning HACHTEL, Marc GRAF, 2023. Expert opinions on criminal law cases in Switzerland : an empirical pilot study. In: Swiss Medical Weekly. SMW Supporting Association. 2023, 153(5), 40073. ISSN 1424-7860. eISSN 1424-3997. Available under: doi: 10.57187/smw.2023.40073BibTex
@article{Bevilacqua2023-05-16Exper-68276, year={2023}, doi={10.57187/smw.2023.40073}, title={Expert opinions on criminal law cases in Switzerland : an empirical pilot study}, number={5}, volume={153}, issn={1424-7860}, journal={Swiss Medical Weekly}, author={Bevilacqua, Leonie and Calfisch, Adriano and Endrass, Jérôme and Rossegger, Astrid and Hachtel, Henning and Graf, Marc}, note={Article Number: 40073} }
RDF
<rdf:RDF xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:bibo="http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/" xmlns:dspace="http://digital-repositories.org/ontologies/dspace/0.1.0#" xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/" xmlns:void="http://rdfs.org/ns/void#" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#" > <rdf:Description rdf:about="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/68276"> <dc:creator>Hachtel, Henning</dc:creator> <dcterms:title>Expert opinions on criminal law cases in Switzerland : an empirical pilot study</dcterms:title> <dc:contributor>Hachtel, Henning</dc:contributor> <dc:contributor>Bevilacqua, Leonie</dc:contributor> <dc:creator>Graf, Marc</dc:creator> <dc:creator>Bevilacqua, Leonie</dc:creator> <dcterms:rights rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"/> <dcterms:abstract>BACKGROUND Criminal courts of law rely on forensic psychiatric/psychological reports when clarifying legal questions of culpability, dangerousness, and the need for therapeutic measures for offenders. Incorrect decisions owing to a lack of expert report quality and comprehensibility can have serious consequences for potential victims, offenders themselves, or societal use of resources. In this pilot study, we started from the hypothesis that forensic psychiatric/psychological reports meet the minimum requirements for legally admissible expert opinions. METHODS Within the framework of assessment by the Concordat Expert Commission of Northwestern and Central Switzerland, 58 adult criminal law reports were randomly selected. Two researchers extracted and analyzed standardized data descriptively. For quality assurance, they followed the extended codebook of the Research and Development Department of the Zürich Office of Corrections and Reintegration. RESULTS Psychopathological findings accounted for only 1% of the reports, which seemed problematic considering that these findings reflect the personality traits of offenders. Furthermore, only 7% of offenders underwent physical examinations, and the reasons for not performing physical examinations were noted in fewer than half of these offenders. Of 26 sexual offenders, only one was physically assessed. Additional imaging or neurophysiological examinations (e.g. electroencephalogram) were conducted in only one offender. Furthermore, published baseline recidivism rates were used in only 37.9% of the reports. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study suggest that current forensic psychiatric assessment is deficient. The infrequent use of published recidivism rates for risk communication denies prosecutors and judges solid reference values for the actual recidivism probability. Moving away from somatic medicine contradicts the federal court judgment, which disqualifies psychologists from providing a forensic report owing to their lack of expertise in physical examination. The authors recommend the multidisciplinary involvement of forensic psychiatrists and psychologists and, in certain cases, of specialists in somatic medicine to produce accurate and well-founded reports.</dcterms:abstract> <bibo:uri rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/handle/123456789/68276"/> <dc:language>eng</dc:language> <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://localhost:8080/"/> <dcterms:available rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2023-11-20T08:49:32Z</dcterms:available> <dc:contributor>Endrass, Jérôme</dc:contributor> <dcterms:isPartOf rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/43"/> <dc:creator>Calfisch, Adriano</dc:creator> <dc:contributor>Calfisch, Adriano</dc:contributor> <dc:rights>Attribution 4.0 International</dc:rights> <dspace:hasBitstream rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/123456789/68276/1/Bevilacqua_2-1gsj4nma5yjy46.pdf"/> <dc:creator>Endrass, Jérôme</dc:creator> <dc:date rdf:datatype="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime">2023-11-20T08:49:32Z</dc:date> <dc:contributor>Rossegger, Astrid</dc:contributor> <void:sparqlEndpoint rdf:resource="http://localhost/fuseki/dspace/sparql"/> <dc:contributor>Graf, Marc</dc:contributor> <dcterms:hasPart rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/123456789/68276/1/Bevilacqua_2-1gsj4nma5yjy46.pdf"/> <dc:creator>Rossegger, Astrid</dc:creator> <dspace:isPartOfCollection rdf:resource="https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/server/rdf/resource/123456789/43"/> <dcterms:issued>2023-05-16</dcterms:issued> </rdf:Description> </rdf:RDF>