No longer the perfect victims: Demonstrating the mental capacity of crime victims with dementia and cognitive impairment for self-advocacy

The credibility of persons with dementia, cognitive impairments, and developmental delay has long been suspect. The effects of decreased memory, difficulty in recalling events sequence, knowing persons by name, poor performance on standardized clinical tests of mental status, and the presence of delusions, conspire to undermine one's ability to appear credible in the eyes of others. Confronted with delusions, memory loss, and decreased evidence of critical thinking, health care providers, members of law enforcement, officers of the court, juries and others have little recourse but to discount the testimony of these individuals. Lacking the ability to credibly report injustices visited upon them, persons with dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment become the perfect victims of predators and abusers. In the case of California v. Delgado, utilizing the interviewing expertise of a forensic psychiatrist, through the application of the Paradise-2 Model of Mental Capacity, the conviction of a rapist was achieved via the testimony of two elder women with dementia.

Learning Objectives: 1. Describe the elements of determining capacity utilizing the Paradise-2 Model of Mental Capacity. 2. Recognize the differences in the information garnered using standard medical tests of capacity and the Paradise-2 Model of Mental Capacity. 3. List the elements necessary to prove the presence of Undue Influence in cases of elder abuse.