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This case report highlights initial difficulties in identifying poor effort and malingering in relation to memory, cognitive deficits and mental disorder. We provide information on the outcome for a man charged with murder who was found to be unable to stand trial as a result of poor memory. After being sentenced by way of a hospital and restriction order, he was found upon inpatient assessment to be malingering and was remitted back to prison in order to continue his murder trial. We comment on the psychological tests, physical investigations and inpatient assessment required to confirm the presence of memory malingering.

Fraudulently claiming symptoms of mental disorder can be very lucrative for those in society who are willing to do so. One context that lends itself well to those willing to fraudulently claim symptoms of mental disorder is the road traffic accident. Previous research has indicated that the assessment practices of those charged with investigating psychological damages in the UK are not suitable in terms of detecting malingering. The purpose of this paper is to provide a “practitioner ready review” that outlines the structured psychometric assessment tools that are recommended and validated by academic research for aiding with the detection of feigned mental disorder.

The paper takes a primarily conceptual approach utilising a narrative literature review which is aimed at the forensic practitioner who conducts assessments for psychological damages in contexts where malingering may be of concern.

The findings of the present paper will be of use not only to forensic practitioners, but also will be of interest to those who instruct assessments in similar contexts, those who conduct research within this area and those who interpret reports written by forensic practitioners such as the courts.

To the author’s knowledge the present paper is the first of its kind, which attempts to bridge the gap between academic literature and professional practice to assist forensic examiners incorporate suitable psychometric instruments within their practice. As a result, the paper makes a substantial contribution to the improvement of forensic reporting in the disciplines of psychology and psychiatry.

The purpose of this paper is to address how context for malingering and the provision of incentives influence malingered symptom profiles of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

A 2 (case context)×3 (incentive) factorial design was utilized. Participants (n=298) were given an incentive (positive, negative, or no incentive), randomly assigned to a criminal or civil context, and asked to provide a fake claim of child abuse with corresponding malingered symptoms of PTSD. Under these conditions, participants completed several questionnaires pertaining to symptoms of trauma and PTSD.

Results indicated that negative incentives were primarily associated with lower symptom scores. Therefore, “having something to lose” may result in more constrained (and realistic) symptom reports relative to exaggeration evidenced with positive incentives.

These results have implications for forensic settings where malingered claims of PTSD are common and incentives for such claims (e.g. having something to gain or lose) frequently exist. Previous studies have failed to address incentives (positive and negative) in relation to a crime (i.e. abuse) that can span both criminal and civil contexts.

Adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) entering the legal system in the USA are at heightened risk of being incorrectly labeled as malingering. The Inventory of Legal Knowledge (ILK) was recently developed to assess response style of individuals undergoing competency to stand trial (CST) evaluations. The purpose of this paper is to present preliminary data on the utility of the ILK with adults with ID.

In total, 32 adults were recruited from an American day program for adults with ID. Using a simulation design, the first 24 participants were assigned to the honest responding group and the remaining eight were assigned to the fake bad group. The normative performance of the honest responding group was compared to established norms for adults without ID, the most efficient ILK cut-off score was examined, and convergent validity of the ILK and other malingering measures tested.

Compared to the established mean score, the recommended cut-off score, and two independent published samples of non-ID adults, the normative performance of the honest responding ID group was significantly lower. Analyses of area under the curve revealed that the ILK lacked sufficient ability to discriminate adults with ID instructed to respond honestly from those instructed to feign incompetence, and correlational analyses failed to support the convergent validity of the ILK in this sample.

The present findings do not support the use of the ILK with adults with ID, even with adjusted cut scores. The development of novel malingering measures that can be used in the context of CST evaluations with adults with ID is needed.

The present study is the first to examine the psychometric properties of the ILK with adults diagnosed with ID and without concomitant psychiatric symptomatology.

The paper aims to give an introduction into symptom validity assessment (SVA) to non‐experts in the field of neuropsychology.

The analysis is based on the knowledge of the progress in this field which can be conceived as one of the most prolific developments in forensic neuropsychological assessment.

By its very nature, clinical neuropsychology is a data‐driven discipline, both on the level of single‐case assessment and in research. In forensic contexts where secondary gain is immanent, uncooperativeness and malingering may threaten the integrity of data, so much so that no valid conclusions may be drawn from the data.

In the last 20 years, clinical and forensic neuropsychologists have been more prominent in the development of methods to detect response distortions and to identify malingering than any other profession. In forensic contexts, neuropsychological evaluations without SVA must be considered incomplete. Clinically and forensically working psychologists should strive to have a thorough knowledge of symptom validity assessment.

This paper aims to provide a discussion and summary of a clinician survey exploring the experiences of suspected feigned autism.

This study is an online survey targeting a range of autism professionals, with varying levels of experience, working in different clinical settings.

Approximately half of the professionals who completed the survey reported experiencing situations of suspected feigning of adult autism across a range of clinical contexts and with various motivations. In terms of best indications of potential feigning, most clinicians reported “textbook” self-descriptions of problem behaviours with vague examples, as well as inconsistent presenting problems and mismatch with any known developmental history. Approximately half of clinicians expressed the view that autism was more difficult to feign than a psychiatric disorder and had experienced situations involving differences in professional opinion as to an individual autism diagnosis.

The survey is limited by a potential sample bias and no information regarding the clinical characteristics of those suspected to have feigned autism. However, these initial findings offer further questions for future research to pursue.

As an initial examination of practicing clinicians’ experiences of suspected feigned autism, the survey highlights the complexities of an autism diagnosis and suggests feigning is a potential clinical scenario. Some guidance as to when to suspect possible feigned autism is also offered, as well as a provisional assessment protocol.

Ensuring the validity of individual responses to psychometric tests is important in a wide range of psychology practice and research. This study compares a number of methods for detecting test faking on a measure not designed with explicit validity checks. A total of 270 students took part in two related studies, one using a standard ‘pencil and paper’ test presentation and the other a computer‐based presentation. Techniques such as responses to specific test items and speed of responding may be useful for assessing the validity of responses. The implications are that such procedures may offer methods for identifying faked responding in a range of psychometric instruments where previously this has not been possible.

February 19, 1974 National Insurance — Industrial injuries benefit — Disablement benefit — “Finality” of medical decisions — Workman injuring knee — Successive assessments by medical boards and medical appeal tribunals relating to specific periods — Third medical board awarding 50 per cent benefit for life — Third medical appeal tribunal accepting surgeon's report suggesting malingering and discharging assessment — Whether medical decisions final when made for specific periods — Whether proceedings contrary to natural justice or made without due inquiry — National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act, 1965 (c.52) s.50(l) — National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) (Determination of Claims and Questions) No. 2 Regulations, 1967 (S.I. 1967 No. 1571), regs. 12,19(2).

Chapter X of The Social System is often cited as the “charter” for the specialty field of medical sociology. A notable feature of its analysis is the argument that the physician is an agent of social control in relation to the patient. This argument grounds the application to medical practice of Parsons’ general conception that social control is an aspect of all social relationships. Parsons started by addressing the situation of a patient who assumes the sick role and then becomes the patient of a physician. The sick role involves a suspension of at least some of the performance expectations associated with a person's everyday social life, such as expectations of working productively at one's job, attending the meeting of a civic association, or caring for one's family members. But in assuming the sick role, an individual encounters new expectations that he or she should try to get well. For minor illnesses this may involve only resting, drinking fluids, and avoiding stress. For more serious illnesses, given our culture's valuation of scientific medicine, it typically involves placing oneself in the care of a physician. It then becomes the physician's duty to offer treatment and guidance to restore one's health and enable one to return to meet expectations of everyday roles. Thus the physician becomes an agent of social control.

Response style evaluation is a fundamental component of forensic examinations. This retrospective study aims to evaluate how measures of feigning performed with individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) who were undergoing competency to proceed to trial evaluations.

Using a known-groups design (ID vs non-ID) with 145 individuals, 37 individuals met diagnostic criteria for ID. The individuals were administered the Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test (M-FAST; Miller, 2001), the Inventory Legal Knowledge (ILK; Musick and Otto, 2010), the Evaluation Competency to Stand Trial-Revised, atypical presentation scale (ATP; Rogers et al., 2004b) and the Competence Assessment for Standing Trial-Mental Retardation (Everington and Luckasson, 1992).

The total ILK demonstrated differences between groups with a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 1.02). Six items on the ILK had over a 30% difference as a function of group. However, two revised scales from the ILK, the R-ILK-90 and the R-ILK-95 (Rogers et al., 2017), did not demonstrate differences as a function of group membership with small effect sizes (Cohen’s ds = 0.02 and 0.29). The M-FAST total score and ATP scales were not different between groups, although results demonstrated that individuals with ID would be potentially more at risk to for misclassification as feigning on the M-FAST.

This study has several limitations. It is a retrospective study with a relatively small sample size so additional research is needed to substantiate the results. However, this study highlights the potential for individuals with intellectual disabilities to be disadvantaged when undergoing competency to stand trial evaluations.

This manuscript shows that individuals with ID are at-risk for being mislabeled as feigning when employing standard measures of response style testing if appropriate cautions are not used. However, revised measures that take into account baseline information of legal knowledge offer a way forward that may prevent false positives with individuals with ID.

The mislabeling of individuals with ID could lead to significant problems, including harsh sentences and unnecessary incarcerations. This manuscript provides real-world data and encourages clinicians to be mindful when evaluation individuals with ID for court-ordered evaluations.

This manuscript is critical, as it shows that caution is needed when using instruments of feigning with individuals with ID who are undergoing competency evaluations. This has value for clinicians who are tasked with completing these evaluations for the courts.