Relevance and coherence as measures of quality in forensic psychological reports

Abstract

"The goal of this research is to provide a general portrait of forensic psychological reports under the Portuguese justice system. An analysis of 106 reports in terms of their relevance and coherence was conducted since these two dimensions appear to be key to better understanding some of the specific characteristics related to the overall quality of forensic psychological reports. A grid was constructed to identify elements related to these two dimensions and its application show that, while mostly meeting formal characteristics such as adequate organization, most of the reports surveyed fell short of meeting the criteria defining relevance and coherence. Results suggest that research on the quality of forensic psychological reports should direct more attention to the internal coherence of the reports and to the importance of reporting on assessment findings that regard the uniqueness of assessees in view of optimizing reports’ role as informational support for legal decision-making."