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A National Survey of State Legislation defining mental retardation: implications for policy and practice after Atkins
Journal article   Peer reviewed

A National Survey of State Legislation defining mental retardation: implications for policy and practice after Atkins

David DeMatteo, Geoffrey Marczyk and Michele Pich
Behavioral sciences & the law, v 25(6), pp 781-802
2007
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.777
PMID: 18046743
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel

Abstract

State Government Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Public Policy United States Humans Terminology as Topic Mental Competency - legislation & jurisprudence Criminal Law - legislation & jurisprudence Supreme Court Decisions Societies, Medical Intellectual Disability - diagnosis Databases, Bibliographic Capital Punishment - legislation & jurisprudence Intellectual Disability - classification
In Atkins v. Virginia 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits executing offenders who are mentally retarded. Rather than adopting a uniform definition of mental retardation, the court charged each state with defining mental retardation in a manner that enforces the constitutional restriction. An unanswered question is how states define mental retardation after Atkins, which has implications for capital defendants and forensic evaluators who conduct capital mitigation evaluations. This project identified the statutory definitions of mental retardation in each state, and grouped the definitions based on consistency with accepted clinical criteria for mental retardation. Results show that definitions of mental retardation vary considerably by state. The large majority of states, both overall and specifically among death penalty states, use criteria for mental retardation that are not entirely consistent with accepted clinical standards. As such, it is not clear whether the majority of states are effectuating the intent of Atkins. The implications of these findings for both policy and practice are discussed.

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8 citations in Web of Science
16 citations in Scopus

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Law
Psychology, Applied
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