TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2006//
TI  - The presence of low IQ and mental retardation among murder defendants referred for pretrial evaluation
JO  - Journal of forensic sciences
A1  - Dwyer, R. Gregg
A1  - Frierson, Richard L.
SP  - 678
EP  - 682
VL  - 51
IS  - 3
N2  - After an overview of definitions of mental retardation and recent case law regarding mental retardation and the death penalty, this paper presents a study of factors associated with a mental retardation (MR) diagnosis among murder defendants. Subjects with a full-scale IQ< or =70 (n=42) were compared with other pretrial murder defendants (n=228) referred for forensic evaluation over a 5-year period. Subjects with an IQ< or =70 who were diagnosed with MR were compared with subjects with an IQ< or =70 who did not receive this diagnosis. Female murder defendants were more likely to receive a diagnosis of MR (p=0.03). MR was also more commonly diagnosed in subjects with an Axis I cognitive disorder (p=0.018). Having an IQ< or =70 was more common in subjects with a psychotic and substance use disorder (p=0.03) and did not necessarily lead to a diagnosis of MR in this subgroup. Implications for diagnosing MR among murder defendants are discussed.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0022-1198
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1556-4029.2006.00115.x
ID  - ref1
ER  -