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Persons With Intellectual Disabilities in the Criminal Justice System

Review of Issues

Queen's University, Ontario, Canada

Although the vast majority of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) are law-abiding citizens, there is a small percentage with offending behaviour that is considered antisocial, socially inappropriate, or defined as illegal. It has long been recognised that individuals with ID or mental-health needs who break the law should be dealt with differently from the general population. There have been an increasing number of empirical studies in this area; however, these have been plagued by various definitional and methodological issues. Prevalence estimates of offenders with ID are complicated by diagnostic variations and inconsistencies in the criminal justice process. International studies have shown a large range, from 2% to 40%, depending on methodological approaches. The following review will highlight the salient issues including prevalence of offending, characteristics of offenders, vulnerabilities within the legal system, assessment, and a brief overview of intervention and treatment approaches.

Key Words: o fenders • intellectual disabilities • learning disabilities • mental retardation • forensic • review

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This version was published on December 1, 2007

International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 51, No. 6, 723-733 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0306624X07299343


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Jones, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Jones, J. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?