Abstract: Objective To seek and ascertain indicators that can be used in the civil competence assess- ment of the mental disorders involved in compensation of personal injury. Methods A retrospective study was made on the data related to the interviewee′s mental status assessed by forensic experts during the period from 2003 to 2005 in Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice, P.R.China. The 6 indica- tors, including awareness of situation, factual understanding of issues, appreciation of likely consequences, rational manipulation of information, functioning in one′s own environment, and communication of choice, were graded and statistically analyzed using SPSS 11.5 software. Results The 6 indicators correlated well with the assessment of forensic experts ,with the related coefficient between 0.632 and 0.876, and the in- ter-related coefficient among the 6 indicators between 0.575 and 0.911. Conclusion The 6 indicators could be used for the civil competence assessment and may also be taken as the basis for further stan- dardization and quantification of civil competence.

Key words: forensic psychiatry, mental disorder, civil capacity, personal injury compensation