Indiana Juvenile Competency to Stand Trial: Legal Experts’ Opinions on Recent Legislative Changes

Level of Education of Students Involved

Undergraduate

Faculty Sponsor

Holly Cross

College

College of Arts & Sciences (CAS)

Discipline(s)

Forensic Psychology

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Spring 4-30-2026

Abstract

Competency to stand trial (CST) is a legal standard used to determine whether an individual has rational and factual capacities to understand court proceedings. Juveniles may not be considered competent on the basis of their mental development and maturity making a juvenile-specific CST statute imperative. It was not until 2024 that Indiana legislators formed a workgroup to create a new juvenile competency legislation. Our previous research focused on the 2024 IN juvenile CST statute, reviewing it in comparison to other states (Panza et al., 2020) and to recommendations made by Larson & Grisso (2011). We found that Indiana addressed 71% of the components mentioned and followed 57% of the recommendations. However, we did identify recommended legislative components that were missing, vague, or inconsistent with evidenced-based practice. It is important to understand how this statute is being interpreted and applied. The current research surveys legal experts (judges, lawyers, law students, etc.) on their opinions, experiences, and interpretations of the 2024 IN juvenile CST statute. Our questions were broken down into the following categories: current work status, past experiences with juvenile cases and juvenile CST, evaluation of the 2024 changes, developmental maturity, and questions related directly to the wording in the 2024 IN juvenile CST statute. The goal of this research is to ascertain how legal experts are operating within the 2024 IN juvenile CST statute and to understand what necessary changes should be made to improve legislation in the future based on the received feedback.

Biographical Information about Author(s)

Bryanna Bass is a senior psychology major, art minor. She is the recipient of the 2025 Waldschmidt Outstanding Psychology Student Award and is nominated for membership in Phi Beta Kappa. After graduation, Bryanna hopes to pursue graduate education in counseling.

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