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Patricia Zapf is a licensed clinical psychologist known for her work in forensic psychology, specializing in competency to stand trial. Zapf spent sixteen years as a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice prior to joining Palo Alto University as the Vice President of Business Innovation and Strategic Advancement.

Education

Zapf received her B.A. in psychology from the University of Alberta in psychology.  She received both her Masters (M.A. in Clinical Psychology with specialization in Forensic Psychology) and Doctorate (Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with specialization in Forensic Psychology) from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, focusing her area of interest on competency to stand trial. Under the mentorship of Ronald Roesch, she completed her dissertation, titled "An investigation of the construct of competence in a criminal and civil context: A comparison of the FIT, the MacCAT-CA, and the MacCAT-T."  She is a licensed psychologist in four states in the United States: Alabama, Florida, New York and Missouri.

Career

Upon completion of her doctoral program, Zapf worked at the University of Alabama as an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department until 2002.  She concurrently began and maintains faculty affiliate status at Simon Fraser University in their Mental Health, Law and Policy Institute.  After leaving the University of Alabama, Zapf held various positions at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at The City University of New York, including Director of Clinical Training, Director of the Forensic Psychology Research Institute, Associate Professor and Professor in the Department of Psychology. Currently, Zapf is Vice President of Business Innovation and Strategic Advancement at Palo Alto University, where she works to advance academia by implementing business strategies to strengthen academia's impact.

Research

Competency to stand trial: Zapf has focused on competency since her doctoral program, writing her dissertation on competency in both criminal and civil trials. She has examined the issue in a number of articles, evaluating the current research and instruments used for competency assessment. She wrote Evaluation of Competence to Stand Trial with her mentor, Ronald Roesch, in which they cover the entire process of evaluating an individual for competency, in addition to addressing the significant concepts related to understanding competency. Zapf and Roesch also created a forensic assessment instrument called The Fitness Interview Test used in assessing for competency. The Fitness Interview Test was found to be a good screener for those fit to stand trial prior to their entry to an inpatient facility for screening.

Forensic Evaluations: Zapf's research also lies in forensic evaluations and bridging the gap in understanding between the legal field and psychology, running trainings for both mental health and legal professionals. Much of this research culminated in two books, both co-authored with Roesch: Forensic assessments in criminal and civil law : a handbook for lawyers (a handbook for attorneys to better understand what to anticipate from a forensic mental health assessment, given that there is not one standard procedure) and Forensic Psychology and Law (an exploration of legal topics and psychology).

In more recent years, Zapf has researched and written on cognitive biases in forensic assessment. She has researched how to identify and mitigate bias in forensic evaluations, as well as how aware forensic evaluators are of their own biases. She created a seven-level taxonomy based on Sir Francis Bacon's doctrine of idols to examine how biases can arise and how to mitigate these biases.

Fellowships and memberships

• Fellow of the American Psychological Association since 2006
• Distinguished Member of the American Psychology-Law Society since 2006
• Former President of the American Psychology-Law Society (2014-2015)
• Editor of the International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services book series

Books

• Zapf, P., & Roesch, R. (2008). Evaluation of Competence to Stand Trial (1st ed.). Oxford University Press.
• Roesch, R., Zapf, P. A., & Hart, S. D. (2009). Forensic Psychology and Law (1. Aufl.). Wiley.
• Roesch, R., & Zapf, P. A. (2013). Forensic assessments in criminal and civil law : a handbook for lawyers. Oxford University Press.
• Cutler, B. L., & Zapf, P. A. (Eds.). (2015). APA handbook of forensic psychology. American Psychological Association.
• Pirelli, G., Beattey, R. A., & Zapf, P. A. (2017). The Ethical Practice of Forensic Psychology: A Casebook (1st ed.). Oxford University Press.

References

1. ^ Zapf, Patricia; Roesch, Ronald (December 2008). Evaluation of Competence to Stand Trial. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/med:psych/9780195323054.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-532305-4.
2. ^ Patricia, A. Zapf; Ronald, Roesch (2019-01-15), "An Investigation of the Construct of Competence: A Comparison of the FIT, the MacCAT-CA, and the MacCAT-T", Clinical Forensic Psychology and Law, Routledge, pp. 67–76, doi:10.4324/9781351161565-7, ISBN 978-1-351-16156-5, retrieved 2024-10-01
3. Zapf, P. From My Perspective. Assessing Competency and Promoting Online Learning . www.study.sagepub.comhttps://study.sagepub.com/system/files/From%20My%20Perspective_Zapf.docx.
4. ^ "Education and Professional Experience | Patricia A. Zapf, PhD". Retrieved 2024-10-01.
5. ^ "Patricia Zapf, PhD (Staff) | Palo Alto University". www.paloaltou.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-01.
6. Beltrani, Amanda; Zapf, Patricia A. (April 2020). "Competence to stand trial and criminalization: an overview of the research". CNS Spectrums. 25 (2): 161–172. doi:10.1017/S1092852919001597. ISSN 1092-8529. PMID 31744590.
7. "Competency to Stand Trial", Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law, 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks California 91320 United States: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2008, doi:10.4135/9781412959537.n47, ISBN 978-1-4129-5189-0, retrieved 2024-10-01{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
8. Zapf, P.A. (2016). "Competency for Execution". Learning Forensic Assessment (2nd ed.). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315773377-12 (inactive 1 November 2024). ISBN 9781315773377.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
9. Zapf, Patricia A.; Roesch, Ronald (February 2011). "Future Directions in the Restoration of Competency to Stand Trial". Current Directions in Psychological Science. 20 (1): 43–47. doi:10.1177/0963721410396798. ISSN 0963-7214.
10. Anderson, Jaime L.; Plantz, Jake; Glocker, Sabine; Zapf, Patricia A. (2022-03-04). "The MacCAT-CA and the ECST-R in Competency to Stand Trial Evaluations: A Critical Review and Practical Implications". Journal of Personality Assessment. 104 (2): 281–288. doi:10.1080/00223891.2021.2006671. ISSN 0022-3891. PMID 34878964.
11. Zapf, Patricia A.; Beltrani, Amanda (2019-01-15), "Competency to Stand Trial", Psychology, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/obo/9780199828340-0229, ISBN 978-0-19-982834-0
12. Zapf, Patricia A.; Eaves, Derek; Roesch, Ronald (2012-11-12). "Fitness Interview Test-Revised". PsycTESTS Dataset. doi:10.1037/t11944-000. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
13. Zapf, Patricia A; Roesch, Ronald; Viljoen, Jodi L (June 2001). "Assessing Fitness to Stand Trial: The Utility of the Fitness Interview Test (Revised Edition)". The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 46 (5): 426–432. doi:10.1177/070674370104600508. ISSN 0706-7437. PMID 11441782.
14. ^ Roesch, Ronald; Zapf, Patricia A., eds. (December 2012). "Forensic Assessments in Criminal and Civil Law". doi:10.1093/med:psych/9780199766857.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-976685-7. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
15. ^ Roesch, R., Zapf, P. A., & Hart, S. D. (2009). Forensic Psychology and Law (1. Aufl.). Wiley.
16. ^ Dror, Itiel E.; Kukucka, Jeff; Kassin, Saul M.; Zapf, Patricia A. (March 2018). "When expert decision making goes wrong: Consensus, bias, the role of experts, and accuracy". Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. 7 (1): 162–163. doi:10.1016/j.jarmac.2018.01.007. ISSN 2211-369X.
17. ^ Zapf, Patricia A.; Dror, Itiel E. (2017-07-03). "Understanding and Mitigating Bias in Forensic Evaluation: Lessons from Forensic Science". International Journal of Forensic Mental Health. 16 (3): 227–238. doi:10.1080/14999013.2017.1317302. ISSN 1499-9013.
18. Zapf, Patricia A.; Kukucka, Jeff; Kassin, Saul M.; Dror, Itiel E. (February 2018). "Cognitive bias in forensic mental health assessment: Evaluator beliefs about its nature and scope". Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. 24 (1): 1–10. doi:10.1037/law0000153. ISSN 1939-1528.
19. ^ Zappala, Marissa; Reed, Amanda L.; Beltrani, Amanda; Zapf, Patricia A.; Otto, Randy K. (2017-12-22). "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better: Bias Awareness in Forensic Evaluators". Journal of Forensic Psychology Research and Practice. 18 (1): 45–56. doi:10.1080/24732850.2017.1413532. ISSN 2473-2850.
20. "Fellows Database - APA". fellows.apa.org. Retrieved 2024-10-01.
21. "Presidential Archives – The American Psychology-Law Society". ap-ls.org. Retrieved 2024-10-01.
22. Cutler, Brian L.; Zapf, Patricia A., eds. (2015). APA handbook of forensic psychology, Vol. 2: Criminal investigation, adjudication, and sentencing outcomes. Washington: American Psychological Association. doi:10.1037/14462-000. ISBN 978-1-4338-1795-3.
23. Pirelli, Gianni; Beattey, Robert A.; Zapf, Patricia A., eds. (2017-05-01). The Ethical Practice of Forensic Psychology: A Casebook. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190258542.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-025854-2.

• Living people
• American clinical psychologists
• Simon Fraser University alumni
• Palo Alto University faculty