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Criminal Offending and Learning Disabilities in New Zealand Youth: Does Reading Comprehension Predict Recidivism?

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch
² New Zealand Department of Corrections

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Julia.rucklidge{at}canterbury.ac.nz.

	Abstract

Sixty youth (16-19 years) from two youth prison sites participate in a prospective study examining criminal offending and learning disabilities (LD), completing measures of estimated IQ, attention, reading, and mathematical and oral language abilities. Prevalence rates of LDs exceed those of international studies, with 91.67% of the offenders showing significant difficulties in at least one area of achievement (defined as 1 SD or more below the normative mean), the mean reading comprehension score falling at the 4th percentile. Four years post assessment, recidivism rates among released youth (n = 51) are investigated. After the investigators control for other known risk factors (including delinquency and estimated IQ), reading comprehension predicts future offending across measures, capturing rate, seriousness, and persistence of offending post release.

First published on May 27, 2009
Crime & Delinquency 2009, doi:10.1177/0011128709336945


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