The Use of Psychological Assessment and Validity Tests in Forensic Psychiatric Examinations

ABSTRACT

This descriptive study aimed to investigate how often pretrial forensic psychiatric examinations in Denmark included psychological assessments; particularly, the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) – a performance validity test – and Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS) – a symptom validity test. The circumstances associated with the administration of these tests, including demographic variables and criminal charges, as well as the diagnoses and forensic recommendations related to the test use were registered. Forensic psychiatric examinations for 2 years, 2015 and 2016, were counted (n = 2109). There were 891 (42%) reports that included psychological assessment, but the local practices varied. Of these assessments, 65 (7%) included TOMM and/or SIMS. The tests were more often administered to defendants with non-Danish ethnicity as well as defendants showing several symptoms and complaints, though not necessarily with severe mental illness.

KEYWORDS:

• Forensic psychiatric examination
• forensic psychological assessment
• Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM)
• Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS)
• negative response bias
• validity test

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.