How forensic psychologists can tell whether someone is malingering.
When someone commits a horrific, inexplicable crime, we naturally
wonder whether he’s mentally ill: Who but a crazy person could do such a
thing? But when a killer acts crazy after his arrest, we also
might wonder whether he’s preparing for his trial. That’s the
speculation around Colorado shooter James Holmes, whose psychiatric
treatment and bizarre behavior in court and prison make people wonder
whether he’s truly insane or building a case for an insanity defense. It
leads to the question: Can a criminal get away with faking insanity?
Experts have been debating that question since the creation of the
insanity defense in the mid-19th century. To avoid the noose or the
guillotine, criminals of the era would fake symptoms from the
then-emerging field of psychology. It soon became a cat-and-mouse game:
Criminals would act out their understanding of insane behaviors, and
alienists (the era’s term for psychologists) would write studies on how
to detect those “malingerers.” Most techniques relied on the
investigators’ experience and powers of observation—looking for
inconsistencies in symptoms, waiting until the suspect tired of the
game, or simply catching a telltale look in his eye. As the Austrian
criminologist Hans Gross wrote: “The shammer, when he thinks no one is
looking, casts a swift and scrutinizing glance on the Investigating
Officer to see whether or not he believes him.”
Today, less than 1 percent of felony defendants raise an insanity
defense, and a tiny fraction of those succeed. Yet in a state like
Colorado, where proving insanity can avert a death sentence, the
temptation to appear mentally ill must be strong. And so modern forensic
psychologists, just like their forebears, watch for malingering with a
sharp clinical eye. They determine whether the symptoms match those of
well-studied pathologies and whether the signs remain consistent over
time. They also can apply a battery of tests that essentially fake-out
the faker.
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