After reading and studying this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Discuss the limitations of psychological research to inform legal decisions.
2. Discuss how competency to stand trial is determined.
3. Discuss the characteristics of people most likely to be referred for competency evaluations, and the characteristics of people most likely to be found incompetent to stand trial.
4. Discuss the frequency with which the insanity defense is used, and the typical judgments that result when it is used.
5. Summarize how insanity pleas are evaluated according to the M’Naghten Rule, irresistible impulse rule, Durham Rule, ALI Rule, and the American Psychiatric Association’s definition of insanity.
6. Discuss the pros and cons of each rule above and describe how each rule either broadened or constricted the legal definition of insanity.
7. Discuss the significance of Barrett vs. United States (1977).
8. Discuss the use of the verdict guilty but mentally ill (GBMI).
9. Discuss the need for treatment as a justification for civil commitment.
10. Discuss the modern criteria used to enable civil commitment, and the variations in how states treat the legal issue of civil commitment.
11. Discuss the significance of Donaldson vs. O’Connor (1975).
12. Discuss the problems with predictions of dangerousness to others, and the factors that predict violence over the short term.
13. Describe the prevalence of violence among mentally ill people.
14. Discuss the rights of patients to treatment and to refuse treatment.
15. Discuss the circumstances in which patients’ rights can be violated.
16. Identify and describe the clinician’s duties to the client and society.
17. Discuss when confidentiality may be broken, and when it may not be broken.
18. Summarize the recent trends in family law and child custody law.
19. Identify the guidelines that clinicians should follow when conducting independent assessments in child custody disputes.
20. Discuss the roles that psychologists assume in child maltreatment cases, and the pros and cons of having psychologists involved in these matters.
21. Identify and describe the controversy in the repressed/recovered/false memory debate, the viewpoints held, and the evidence that supports or weakens each viewpoint.