Competency for Execution Assessments: Ethical Continuities and Professional Tasks

ABSTRACT

Articles periodically portray as unethical those forensic mental health professionals who perform Competency for Execution (CFE) assessments. The present commentary reviews the ethics and practices in CFE evaluations. Particular attention is paid to individual ethical understandings, to developments in forensic practices related to CFE, and to conceptual and applied frames of reference that allow a means of organizing and approaching CFE tasks. A decision tree is offered to assist practitioners in recognizing factors that should be considered when making decisions about performing CFE and other types of evaluations in capital cases.

KEYWORDS:

• Competency
• execution
• assessment
• ethics