Proportion Of Defendants Research Articles

Impact of the medical care act amendment on the medical malpractice litigation in Taiwan.

Medical malpractice leads to medical criminal liability and claims. The national data of medical criminal liabilities across various specializations, before and after the Medical Care Act amendment, was lacking in Taiwan. The aim of this study is to clarify the impact of the law amendment. A comprehensive retrospective analysis of medical crimes was conducted from January 2001 to December 2020 in Taiwan. The number of medical criminal litigation, defendants, people who plead guilty, conviction rate, and punishment sentences were analyzed. Additionally, the number of practicing physicians in the year was used as the baseline to determine the rate of the accused and guilty rate per 10,000 physician-years, respectively. From 2001 to 2020, there were 249 criminal litigations of medical professionals, which gave rise to 335 defendants. The proportion of defendants by specialization was 19.1% in internal medicine, 26.3% in surgery and orthopedics, 11.9% in obstetrics and gynecology, 3.3% in pediatrics, 25.7% in physicians (who were not related to the aforementioned 4 specializations), and 13.7% in non-physician staff. After the amendment to the Medical Care Act in 2017, the accused rates per 10,000 physician-years decreased significantly in aggregate and by specialization between 2016 and 2020; the guilty rate per 10,000 physician-years during 2016 to 2020 was the minimum, compared to the past. The amendment to the Medical Care Act in 2017 reduced the number of vexatious criminal proceedings. The amendment also reduced criminal liabilities by reducing the guilty rate during 2016 to 2020, compared to the previous period.

Trends and Characteristics of Criminal Responsibility Evaluations in Missouri

ABSTRACT Data collected by the State of Missouri Department of Mental Health were used to analyze trends and characteristics of criminal responsibility evaluations by Certified Forensic Evaluators in Missouri. Using data from Fiscal Year 2003 to Fiscal Year 2018, analyses focused on the following: (a) the relationship between diagnosis and criminal responsibility opinion, (b) the rates of criminal responsibility opinions over time (e.g., responsible vs. not responsible), and (c) the use of psychological testing instruments in these evaluations over time. Results indicated that outcomes of criminal responsibility evaluations in Missouri were broadly consistent with published literature. Diagnoses of psychotic disorders were the most highly associated with criminal responsibility opinions, the proportion of defendants being opined not criminally responsible was congruent with similar published samples and consistent over time, and the use of psychological testing appeared to decrease over time. In contrast with other published datasets, our sample had a disproportionately high number of evaluations deferring or providing no opinion to the question of criminal responsibility, and whether or not these entries were included in the analysis notably influenced our reported rate of finding defendants not criminally responsible. Reasons for this discrepancy, such as the preponderance of joint evaluations with competency to stand trial evaluations, as well as reasons for the decreasing trend in psychological test use, are discussed.

Prevalence and detection of serious psychiatric disorder in defendants attending court

Diversion programmes in magistrates' courts are designed to provide immediate advice or access to mental-health treatment facilities for defendants when appropriate. The prevalence of serious psychiatric disorder and the proportion of defendants who might require transfer are unknown. We undertook a study to address these issues and to find out whether defendants with such disorders are reliably detected by court personnel and referred to psychiatric staff in court diversion programmes. A two-phase screening method used questionnaires for psychiatric disorder (the general health questionnaire and psychotic screening questionnaire) and screening instruments for alcohol and substance misuse followed by standard psychiatric interview (schedules for clinical assessment in neuropsychiatry). The detection rate of defendants with serious psychiatric disorder by court staff was observed. The frequency of serious psychiatric disorder was 1.31% (three of 229) among defendants appearing in court direct from the community and 6.57% (96 of 1460) among those held in custody overnight. Of the 99 defendants with serious psychiatric disorder, 34 had schizophrenia and other psychoses and 55 had depressive disorders. 42 (76%) of the 55 individuals with depressive disorders had suicidal ideas, which were recorded on the first-phase screening questionnaire in many cases. Only 14 of 96 defendants from overnight custody with serious psychiatric disorder were detected by court staff and referred to the court diversion programme. There is a substantial rate of psychiatric disorder in the court population, which is not satisfactorily detected with the current system. Brief screening questionnaires and training of court staff are probably necessary for detection of people with serious psychiatric disorder passing through the courts.

The Difference between Blackstone-Like Error Ratios and Probabilistic Standards of Proof

Statements regarding the ratio of erroneous acquittals to erroneous convictions are often thought to have clear implications for standards of proof. For example, Blackstone's comment that “it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer’ is believed by many to imply a precise numerical value for proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Specifically, jurors should vote to convict only if they are at least 91 % certain of the defendant's guilt. Unfortunately, the belief that this decision threshold will lead to the desired ratio of judicial errors is simply incorrect. Depending on (a) the accuracy with which juries discriminate between truly innocent and truly guilty defendants and (b) the proportion of defendants who are truly guilty, this probabilistic standard of proof may lead to any ratio of judicial errors, including those favoring conviction of the innocent over acquittal of the guilty. Although standards of proof cannot be equated with error ratios in a simple manner, the problem lies not with probabilistic decision thresholds but with the desire to achieve a certain error ratio.

The death-qualified jury and the defense of insanity.

We predicted that people who are excluded from serving on juries in capital cases due to their opposition to the death penalty (excludable subjects) tend to place a greater value on the preservation of due process guarantees than on efficient crime control, and therefore are more likely to accept an insanity defense in criminal cases than are people who are permitted to serve on capital juries (death-qualified subjects). Subjects who had previously been classified as death-qualified or excludable read four summaries of cases in which the defendant entered a plea of insanity, and made judgments of guilt or innocence. In the two cases involving nonorganic disorders (schizophrenia), death-qualified subjects were significantly more likely than excludable subjects to vote guilty; in the two cases involving organic disorders (mental retardation and psychomotor epilepsy), there were no differences between the two groups. In addition, excludable subjects gave significantly higher estimates than death-qualified subjects of the proportion of defendants pleading insanity who “really are” insane.

Rural Courts: An Illinois Study

This study involved the review of685felony casesfor two calendar years in three rural Illinois counties in an attempt to fill an important research need in the study of the operation of rural courts. Variables studied included nature of offenses in formal felony cases, method of adjudication, extent of guilty pleas and plea agreements, and nature of defendant representation. Most formal felony cases involved property offenses, most cases reaching arraignment were disposed of by guilty pleas involving plea agreements, and a high proportion of defendants were indigent and utilized county public defenders. In these aspects, these rural courts operated in ways similar to their more urban counterparts. However, the reasons for these characteristics (most especially the extent ofplea negotiation) may derivefrom the rural andfamiliar nature of the courts studied in addition to other possibilities.