Royal Forensic Psychiatry Seminar Series Session Three Quiz

The Mentally Ill Offender In Court: Session Three Quiz

Please answer the following multiple choice questions. When you have answered each question click the submit button. All quiz responses are anonymous and offered simply toward enhancing the learning experience for each seminar session.

The answers to these questions and more will be presented on March 28 at 3:30 EST when Dr. AG Ahmed of The Royal presents 'The Mentally Ill Offender In Court'. If you missed the live event, you watch this session in the RFSS Seminar Archive.

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* 1. In order to be fit to stand trial an accused must meet the following conditions except:

The accused must be both mental and physical present at trial

Understand the nature and object of the proceedings

Symptom free

Understand the possible consequences of the proceedings

Communicate with the counsel

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* 2. Possible explanation for observed increase in the number of mentally accused in the Criminal Justice System include all of following except:

Inadequacy of civil ligation

A perception that Part XX.1 of the Criminal Code of Canada is lenient

Societal “Zero tolerance” tolerance for criminal behaviour

Increased custodial sentence for federal offenses

Reduced resource mental health care allocation in the civil system

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* 3. In regards to unfitness to stand trial one of the following statements is incorrect:

Arise at any time during the proceeding

Usually arises at the accused first court appearance

Can only be raised once during the trial

May be raised by the court, the accused or the prosecutor

Statutory provisions don’t apply where the question is raised after verdict is pronounced and prior to sentencing or during the course of sentencing.

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* 4. From the following choices, the only “reasonable grounds” for ordering a Fitness Assessment is:

Accused past psychiatric history

Request by the accused, his family or his counsel to be admitted to psychiatric hospital

Homelessness and gross lack of community support

Disorganization and bizarre presentation of the accused in court

Evidence of psychopathology interfering with the understanding of the court process.

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* 5. Assessment under section 672..11 may be ordered to determine any of the following except:

Whether the accused is unfit to stand trial

Whether the accused was, at the time of alleged act/omission, suffering from a mental disorder that results in exemption by virtue of s. 16(1) CCC

If a female person charged with an offence of killing her newborn, whether the balance of her mind was disturbed at the time of commission of the alleged offence

Capacity to make a valid will

Opinion on appropriate disposition having found the accused unfit to stand trial or NCR

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* 6. In regards to Amnesia, all of the following statements are correct except:

May coexist with willful suppression in the same person

For the critical events is a common finding in violent crime

Is often attributable to substance consumption prior to the act

Impaired registration because of heightened emotional at the time of the incident

In R v. Morrissey, amnesia due to frontal syndrome was adduced as explanation for unfitness to stand trial

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* 7. When evaluating criminal responsibility, the psychiatrist should:

Have a high index of suspicion about potential malingering

Maintain an objective stance

Surmise the mental state at the time of the alleged act from all available information

The presence of rage at time of the act negates an NCR defense

Explore pre-existing animosity

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* 8. Following a verdict of NCRMD one the following is correct:

The accused shall not be found guilty or be convicted of the offence

The accused may plead autrefois acquit in respect of any subsequent charges relating to that offence

The finding may be taken into account in the disposition of other offences

The National Parole Board may take the verdict into consideration

All of the above

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* 9. Regarding the Disposition order for an accused found NCR, the court must consider the following except:

Public safety

Mental condition of the accused

Military service where PTSD is a co-morbid condition

Reintegration into the society of the accused

Other need of the accused

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* 10. In R. v. Oommen, the court addresses specifically the question “knowing that the act or omission was wrong”. Which of the following is incorrect?

Wrong implies having knowledge of both legal and moral wrongfulness.

“Moral” in this regard implies societal rather than individual moral of the defendant.

Wrong implies the intellectual ability to know right from wrong

Wrong embraces the ability to apply the knowledge in a rational way to the alleged criminal act.

Defendant’s capacity to make rational choice between right and wrong in relation to act, determines criminally responsibility