May the choice be with you: assisting practitioners with selecting appropriate psychometric assessments for the medico legal arena
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCP-02-2018-0007 |
| Date | 24 January 2019 |
| Pages | 1-9 |
| Published date | 24 January 2019 |
| Author | Ashley Cartwright |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Criminal psychology,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Deviant behaviour,Public policy & environmental management,Policing,Criminal justice |
May the choice be with you: assisting
practitioners with selecting appropriate
psychometric assessments for the medico
legal arena
Ashley Cartwright
Abstract
Purpose –Fraudulently claiming symptoms of mental disorder can be very lucrative for those in society who
are willing to do so. One context that lends itself well to those willing to fraudulently claim symptoms of mental
disorder is the road traffic accident. Previous research has indicated that the assessment practices of those
charged with investigating psychological damages in the UK are not suitable in terms of detecting
malingering. The purpose of this paper is to provide a “practitioner ready review”that outlines the structured
psychometric assessment tools that are recommended and validated by academic research for aiding with
the detection of feigned mental disorder.
Design/methodology/approach –The paper takes a primarily conceptual approach utilising a narrative
literature review which is aimed at the forensic practitioner who conducts assessments for psychological
damages in contexts where malingering may be of concern.
Findings –The findings of the present paper will be of use not only to forensic practitioners, but also will be of
interest to those who instruct assessments in similar contexts, those who conduct research within this area
and those who interpret reports written by forensic practitioners such as the courts.
Originality/value –To the author’s knowledge the present paper is the first of its kind, which attempts to
bridge the gap betweenacademic literature and professionalpractice to assist forensic examinersincorporate
suitable psychometric instrumentswithin their practice.As a result, the paper makes a substantialcontribution
to the improvement of forensic reporting in the disciplines of psychologyand psychiatry.
Keywords Forensic psychiatry, Malingering, Medico legal, MMPI-2-RF, Psychometric assessments,
Report writing
Paper type General review
Introduction
In the UK over the past five years there have been several changes in the medico legal arena with
perhaps the biggest changes affecting the reporting of personal injury claims following road
traffic accidents (RTAs). The UK Government introduced their Medco portal alongside
implementing changes in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act (2015), specifically Section 57.
Such changes are the result of the seemingly dishonest society that medico legal practitioners
now operate within. At present, such changes have only directly affected the practices of the
reporting of whiplash injuries but this shift in mind-set, whereby fraudulent claims will be entirely
struck out of court along with contempt of court proceedings being sought, surely has many
implications for the future of psychological reporting.
Although the rate of fraud for RTAs has continued to soar (ABI, 2012, 2014, 2015; Aviva, 2015) very
little academic attention in the UK has been paid to this issue despite the highly lucrative incentives
for claims of mental disorder (Cartwright and Roach 2016b; Judicial College , 2013). When an
individual fraudulently claims mental disorder, this is known as malingering and it is defined by the
Received 5 February 2018
Revised 10 July 2018
Accepted 15 August 2018
Ashley Cartwright is Senior
Lecturer in Criminology at the
Leeds Beckett University,
Leeds, UK.
DOI 10.1108/JCP-02-2018-0007 VOL. 9 NO. 1 2019, pp. 1-9, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2009-3829
j
JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY
j
PAG E 1
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