The assessment of competence to stand trial in juveniles

Abstract

Introduction: Despite the relevance of adolescents’ psycholegal capacities to judicial decisions, no assessment tool exists in Latin
America to evaluate these competence-related abilities. Objective: To explore aspects of the reliability of the Test de competencia
para el desempeño en proceso del fuero de responsabilidad penal juvenil MacArthur: Versión Argentina - MacCAT-CA:VA, wich is the
Argentinian adaptation of the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Criminal Adjudication (MacCAT-CA). Method: Mental
health professionals trained in the use of MacCAT-CA:VA administered the instrument to 46 adolescents (23 court-ordered to
a secure facility; 23 public high school students). Prior to data collection, the instrument was translated, back-translated, and
adapted for use in Argentina; the publisher of the original version authorized the translation of the instrument and use of the
adapated version for this study. Descriptive statistics and reliability indicators were generated. Results: Cronbach’s alpha coeficients
were 0.69, 0.67, and 0.75 for the Understanding, Reasoning and Appreciation scales, respectively. The intraclass correlation
coefficient for each item was within the good to excellent range (mean ICC=0.71; median ICC=0.75; ICC range=0.40-0.90);
for the Understanding, Reasoning, and Appreciation scales, ICC values indicated excellent internal consistency (0.84, 0.81,
0.85, respectively). Compared with the student subsample, a greater proportion of the court-ordered adolescents in secure placement demonstrated significant clinical impairment.