Effectiveness of clinical assessment in Spanish forensic practice: detecting malingered psychosocial sequelae in victims of intimate partner violence

Background and Objectives: According to Spanish legislation, the psychological harm suffered by the victim of a criminal act is determined by assessing its impact on the victim's mental state. Usually, the victim's pain and suffering is estimated by administering clinical scales. The aim o...

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Autores: Soria Verde, Miguel Ángel, Yepes i Baldó, Montserrat, Armadans Tremolosa, Immaculada
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/113457
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/113457
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Violència conjugal
Assetjament psicològic
Psicologia forense
Marital violence
Psychological abuse
Forensic psychology
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spelling Effectiveness of clinical assessment in Spanish forensic practice: detecting malingered psychosocial sequelae in victims of intimate partner violenceSoria Verde, Miguel ÁngelYepes i Baldó, MontserratArmadans Tremolosa, ImmaculadaViolència conjugalAssetjament psicològicPsicologia forenseMarital violencePsychological abuseForensic psychologyBackground and Objectives: According to Spanish legislation, the psychological harm suffered by the victim of a criminal act is determined by assessing its impact on the victim's mental state. Usually, the victim's pain and suffering is estimated by administering clinical scales. The aim of the present study was to explore the effectiveness of psychopathological assessment using commonly used scales in clinical practice and whose results are presented as legal evidence in a forensic context in order to detect malingered psychological sequelae (anxiety, depression and low self-esteem) in victims of intimate partner violence in forensic contexts. Methods: In the present study three scales based in a clinical setting and regularly used in a forensic context were administered (BDI, STAI and Rosenberg) to assess malingering of symptoms. The sample comprised 66 women: 36 students, and 30 real victims. The non-clinical sample was evaluated twice: the first time they gave sincere responses, and the second time they were instructed to answer as if they were victims. The real victims underwent testing in a forensic context. Results and Conclusions: The results of our research show that, even without previous knowledge of the scales, people can distort the test results by malingering symptoms that are normally accepted as sequelae of intimate partner violence, especially depression and low self-esteem; however, the results for anxiety, were less homogeneous. Although these tests are used extensively in clinical psychology, our study confirms that, just by themselves, they are not a reliable source of information in a forensic context.Universidad de Zaragoza2011info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2445/113457Articles publicats en revistes (Psicologia Social i Psicologia Quantitativa)reponame:Dipòsit Digital de la UBinstname:Universidad de BarcelonaInglésReproducció del document publicat a: http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_pdf&pid=S0213-61632011000100002&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=enThe European Journal of Psychiatry, 2011, vol. 25, num. 1, p. 8-18cc-by-nc (c) Soria Verde, Miguel Ángel et al., 2011http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/esinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/1134572026-05-27T06:46:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Effectiveness of clinical assessment in Spanish forensic practice: detecting malingered psychosocial sequelae in victims of intimate partner violence
title Effectiveness of clinical assessment in Spanish forensic practice: detecting malingered psychosocial sequelae in victims of intimate partner violence
spellingShingle Effectiveness of clinical assessment in Spanish forensic practice: detecting malingered psychosocial sequelae in victims of intimate partner violence
Soria Verde, Miguel Ángel
Violència conjugal
Assetjament psicològic
Psicologia forense
Marital violence
Psychological abuse
Forensic psychology
title_short Effectiveness of clinical assessment in Spanish forensic practice: detecting malingered psychosocial sequelae in victims of intimate partner violence
title_full Effectiveness of clinical assessment in Spanish forensic practice: detecting malingered psychosocial sequelae in victims of intimate partner violence
title_fullStr Effectiveness of clinical assessment in Spanish forensic practice: detecting malingered psychosocial sequelae in victims of intimate partner violence
title_full_unstemmed Effectiveness of clinical assessment in Spanish forensic practice: detecting malingered psychosocial sequelae in victims of intimate partner violence
title_sort Effectiveness of clinical assessment in Spanish forensic practice: detecting malingered psychosocial sequelae in victims of intimate partner violence
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Soria Verde, Miguel Ángel
Yepes i Baldó, Montserrat
Armadans Tremolosa, Immaculada
author Soria Verde, Miguel Ángel
author_facet Soria Verde, Miguel Ángel
Yepes i Baldó, Montserrat
Armadans Tremolosa, Immaculada
author_role author
author2 Yepes i Baldó, Montserrat
Armadans Tremolosa, Immaculada
author2_role author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Violència conjugal
Assetjament psicològic
Psicologia forense
Marital violence
Psychological abuse
Forensic psychology
topic Violència conjugal
Assetjament psicològic
Psicologia forense
Marital violence
Psychological abuse
Forensic psychology
description Background and Objectives: According to Spanish legislation, the psychological harm suffered by the victim of a criminal act is determined by assessing its impact on the victim's mental state. Usually, the victim's pain and suffering is estimated by administering clinical scales. The aim of the present study was to explore the effectiveness of psychopathological assessment using commonly used scales in clinical practice and whose results are presented as legal evidence in a forensic context in order to detect malingered psychological sequelae (anxiety, depression and low self-esteem) in victims of intimate partner violence in forensic contexts. Methods: In the present study three scales based in a clinical setting and regularly used in a forensic context were administered (BDI, STAI and Rosenberg) to assess malingering of symptoms. The sample comprised 66 women: 36 students, and 30 real victims. The non-clinical sample was evaluated twice: the first time they gave sincere responses, and the second time they were instructed to answer as if they were victims. The real victims underwent testing in a forensic context. Results and Conclusions: The results of our research show that, even without previous knowledge of the scales, people can distort the test results by malingering symptoms that are normally accepted as sequelae of intimate partner violence, especially depression and low self-esteem; however, the results for anxiety, were less homogeneous. Although these tests are used extensively in clinical psychology, our study confirms that, just by themselves, they are not a reliable source of information in a forensic context.
publishDate 2011
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2011
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/2445/113457
url https://hdl.handle.net/2445/113457
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Reproducció del document publicat a: http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_pdf&pid=S0213-61632011000100002&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=en
The European Journal of Psychiatry, 2011, vol. 25, num. 1, p. 8-18
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv cc-by-nc (c) Soria Verde, Miguel Ángel et al., 2011
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/es
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv cc-by-nc (c) Soria Verde, Miguel Ángel et al., 2011
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/es
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Universidad de Zaragoza
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Universidad de Zaragoza
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Articles publicats en revistes (Psicologia Social i Psicologia Quantitativa)
reponame:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
instname:Universidad de Barcelona
instname_str Universidad de Barcelona
reponame_str Dipòsit Digital de la UB
collection Dipòsit Digital de la UB
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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