NCJ Number
233312
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 38 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2011 Pages: 146-156
Date Published
February 2011
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study investigated whether the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder (APD) reliably assists in the forensic clinical evaluation of malingering.
Abstract
Forensic patients with APD were compared to forensic patients without APD on a validated measure of malingering (Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms [SIRS]). Results indicated that patients with APD were not significantly more likely to exceed accepted cutoff scores on the SIRS (i.e., 17.9 percent vs. 11.6 percent, respectively), nor were they more likely to be suspected of malingering by clinicians (17.9 percent vs. 18.6 percent). Although there was a high level of disagreement between clinicians' determination of malingering and classification by the SIRS, this relationship was not significant. Furthermore, patients with APD who were suspected by clinicians to be malingering were not more likely to be classified as responding genuinely using the SIRS. These findings challenge the recommendation issued by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text revision) that advises clinicians to be highly suspicious of malingering in the presence of APD. (Published Abstract)