The case outlines a case of Filicide or False Confession where a parent is responsible for killing her son and daughter in cold blood. It is a case that begins with an emergency phone call conversation between an emergency response team and Kim. The police found two dead bodies of a two-year-old girl called Roxanna and that of a six-month-old baby boy called Don. The police took Kim into custody as they found her at the scene of the crime. Kim had undergone numerous relationships and instances of substance abuse, sexual abuse, depression and mental disturbance, which affected her life and that of her children.
Kim’s relationship with her children was getting out of hand, and she could no longer feel her children’s love. The investigators employed forensic assessment instruments to determine Kim’s culpability in the case of the death of her son and daughter.
The MMPI-2 forensic assessment instrument is invaluable in the case as it helps unlock any vital factors that could have been ignored in the case.
The tool helps create a better understanding of the legal and traditional elements that can affect the case evaluation process (Drayton, 2009). It also helps analyze the victim’s psychological problems, such as brain damages, which is crucial in Kim’s case. It integrates the use of computer technologies to make understanding. The MMPI-2 as well helps in the preparation of findings in testimonies and drafted reports.
Equally, the SIRS is a forensic assessment tool that helps identity any form of distortion that arises as a result of self-reporting of a victim’s symptoms as seen in the narration of Kim’s lifestyle and mental problems about the case at hand.
The tool contains scales that offer vital information on how a specific victim can alter or formulate false symptoms. According to Heilbronner (2011), the main objective of this tool is to establish an instance of falsifying symptoms in an exaggerated extent. In this regard, the tool will help establish the truthfulness of the psychological/brain symptoms/depression that Kim presents to exonerate from the crime or convict her.
The forensic assessment instruments used in the case are appropriate as they seek to demystify the mental condition of Kim to establish whether she can be exonerated from the crime or accused of the manslaughter of her children in sound mind. In this regard, there may not be a need for other forensic assessment instruments considering that these are invaluable in establishing the mental status of the accused person, which is crucial in determining the final verdict of the case.
Based on reliability, SIRS has a high reliability, especially, in establishing minor elements and when managed by a highly trained personnel. As well, MMPI-2 has a high reliability considering that it helps establish factual results of a study.
The validity of SIRS remains vague. Equally, MMPI-2 does not provide high validity for a study.
Based on the norming sample populations SIRS can contain a large sample of clients taking tests who stand for the entire population. MMPI-2 does not need different norms for different settings but can contain a large sample of test takers.
Overall, a thorough and meticulous understanding of the forensic assessment tools is invaluable for a forensic investigator as this knowledge helps in understanding how to make a crucial interpretation of their findings. Furthermore, the assessment tools can be used to determine the culpability of an accused person, including instilling justice in a case. Therefore, any error or forms of misunderstanding of the tools may turn the direction of a case and further jeopardize an entire court ruling.
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