Cognitive bias in forensic mental health evaluations

Cognitive Underpinnings of Bias in Forensic Mental Health Evaluations

In this article, the evaluators who take part in the assessment of legitimate defenders are intently accused with attempts of alleged-offenses. Then these evaluators are responsible to analyze whether the accused person is actually capable of doing prohibited activities or not and if the prohibited activities are caused by some mental or personality disorders. The forensic-experts or case-evaluators are likely to encounter with certain bias which may result in the deprived decision making which further leads to the unfair judgment of evaluators. However, the evaluators can make false judgments if they become biased during the evaluation and decision making of the case. These evaluators can become biased and might be unaware of the unfairness that they have endeavored during their judgment. The biased decisions can be caused by the overstatement of evidence, over-judgment upon the recent or first evidence and overestimation of the likelihood of the person to indulge in prohibited activities in the past and future.

1. ResearchQuestions

The current study has made an effort to address the following questions:

i. What are the causes that lead towards the implicit bias during the evaluation, judgment and decision making process?

ii. What measures should be applied in the evaluation, judgment and decision making process in order to eradicate the existence of implicit bias?

2. Research Methodology

The current study is categorized as a qualitative paper in which a case-study method has been used that has provided a detailed review about the subject of study. The method has begun with the number of observable evidences that has supported the addressed problem which has lead to the formation of problem definition in the study subject and the evidence from quantitative studies has also been referred to support the defined problem. The study is also supported by the previous studies and theories related to this field. The study has further provided suggestions on the basis of previous studies and methods and implications to eradicate the addressed problem and has provided directions for future research and studies.

4. Discussion

The results of the current study indicate the measures that can be utilized to reduce or refrain the bias in the decision making process and eradicate the unfair judgment. The unfair judgment could be in terms of false-negative in which the accused person is not found guilty of unlawful activities whereas the reality about his attempted offenses entails that he is guilty, then such poor judgments not only raise serious questions on the capabilities of the forensic-experts but also comprehends these experts to be accountable if any prohibited activities are reiterated by their formerly false-negative proven person.The measures indicated by this study contain structured process with respect to the reviews from previous studies and, therefore, these measures could be adopted and used practically by the forensic-experts. However, the identification and analysis of implicit bias could not be self-identified, but the structured procedure of forensic case can help reduce the biased judgment. Furthermore, the measures provided in this study will not only help the evaluators to modify their judgment procedure, but it will also help in the reduction of biased judgment by increasing the reliability of the decision which will not only act as the direction for effective decisions and hence; it will also be utilized in the betterment of the society by judging the alleged-offenses properly. The results of the study are found to be quite meaningful because these results have provided the guidelines to modify the case assessment procedures on the basis of the well addressed phenomena and moreover, further research directions for future studies are also provided in order to for the continuity and adaptability of case assessment procedures.