Clinical Assessment of Malingering and Deception

Rasch Models for Measurement

The Flynn effect (rising intelligence test performance in the general population over time and generations) varies enigmatically across countries and intelligence domains; its substantive meaning and causes remain elusive. This first formal meta-analysis on the topic revealed worldwide IQ gains across more than one century (1909-2013), based on 271 independent samples, totaling almost 4 million participants, from 31 countries. Key findings include that IQ gains vary according to domain (estimated 0.41, 0.30, 0.28, and 0.21 IQ points annually for fluid, spatial, full-scale, and crystallized IQ test performance, respectively), are stronger for adults than children, and have decreased in more recent decades. Altogether, these findings narrow down proposed theories and candidate factors presumably accounting for the Flynn effect. Factors associated with life history speed seem mainly responsible for the Flynn effect's general trajectory, whereas favorable social multiplier effects and effects related to economic prosperity appear to be responsible for observed differences of the Flynn effect across intelligence domains.

One Century of Global IQ Gains: A Formal Meta-Analysis of the Flynn Effect (1909–2013)

The authors' title selection is certainly apropos for this masterful work on psychiatry and the law. It is, indeed, a handbook, full of insightful information, discussed in a format uniquely the authors'. The presentation of the material, in my view, is a tribute to their highly imaginative, clinical minds. My only regret is that, unlike most handbooks, it is not small enough to carry in your coat pocket. The book is one of the most clinically creative works to come out in the field of forensic psychiatry. It has successfully achieved what the authors stated it consistently strives to accomplish, that is, "1) always to interrelate the legal and the clinical aspects of an issue; and 2) to convey, whenever possible, something of the history of the law's approach to a problem, in the recognition that today's rule is, in most cases, merely the most recent unstable equilibrium that the

Clinical Handbook of Psychiatry and the Law

This article provides an overview of the history of substance use and misuse and chronicles the long shared history humans have had with psychoactive substances, including alcohol. The practical and personal functions of substances and the prevailing views of society towards substance users are described for selected historical periods and within certain cultural contexts. This article portrays how the changing historical and cultural milieu influences the prevailing medical, moral, and legal conceptualizations of substance use as reflected both in popular opinion and the consensus of the scientific community and represented by the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Finally, this article discusses the efforts to classify substance use disorders (SUDs) and associated psychopathology in the APA compendium. Controversies both lingering and resolved in the field are discussed, and implications for the future of SUD diagnoses are identified.

The Classification of Substance Use Disorders: Historical, Contextual, and Conceptual Considerations

This document is intended as a review of legal and psychiatric factors to offer practical guidance in the performance of forensic evaluations. It is a guideline developed through the participation of forensic psychiatrists who routinely conduct a variety of forensic assessments and who have

http://jaapl.org/content/jaapl/43/2_Supplement/S3.full.pdf

AAPL Practice Guideline for the Forensic Assessment

The expert witness testifies under oath to tell "the whole truth," yet certain aspects of the legal system itself make this ideal difficult or impossible. The authors present both a philosophical and a practical discussion of the challenges for the expert in attaining this goal. After review of oaths in general and truth-telling in particular, real-life examples are provided to examine the vicissitudes of the whole truth in court. Recommendations are provided for experts, to preserve the truth in the adversary system.

http://jaapl.org/content/jaapl/31/4/422.full.pdf

"The whole truth" versus "the admissible truth": an ethics dilemma for expert witnesses.

Purpose of the reviewPersons with intellectual disability come into frequent and underreported contact with the legal system. Advances in forensic psychiatry help better identify persons with intellectual disability in forensic contexts, inform evaluation and treatment, and elucidate unique characte

Psychiatric disorders in people with intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder): forensic aspects.

The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law’s Committee on the Developmentally Disabled, founded in 1990, has continually grappled with the inequities faced by persons with mental retardation within the criminal justice system. Not the least of our concerns has been capital sentencing and execution of disabled defendants. Indeed, the Committee cut its teeth on the 1989 Supreme Court decision Penry v. Lynaugh. In that case, Justice O’Connor acknowledged the issue but demurred on the question of a constitutional ban on executing citizens with mental retardation, citing lack of consensus. Since Penry, there has been a massive outpouring of interest, from within state legislatures and from advocacy and human rights groups, about a constitutional ban. With many legislative efforts to deal with the issue, some states—though still fewer than half—have banned the execution of retarded citizens. Now, with the Supreme Court’s decision in Atkins v. Virginia, the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Council on Psychiatry and Law has taken an affirmative step by promulgating its Resource Document prepared by Professor Richard Bonnie. The Resource Document indicates that legislators will need guidance from psychiatrists and other mental health professionals in drafting postAtkins statutes. We heartily agree. MR: What Is It? Who Has It?

http://jaapl.org/content/jaapl/32/3/309.full.pdf

Commentary: Atkins and clinical practice.

http://jaapl.org/content/jaapl/32/3/340.full.pdf

Mark J. Hauser

Papers

AAPL Practice Guideline for the Forensic Assessment

"The whole truth" versus "the admissible truth": an ethics dilemma for expert witnesses.

Psychiatric disorders in people with intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder): forensic aspects.

Commentary: Atkins and clinical practice.

The whole truth versus the admissible truth.