Am J Psychiatry 1992; 149:1252-1257
Copyright © 1992 by American Psychiatric Association
Differences in neuropsychological and academic achievement between adolescent delinquents and status offenders
R Famularo, T Fenton, R Kinscherff, R Barnum, S Bolduc and D Bunschaft
Boston Juvenile Court Clinic, Massachusetts Department of Mental Health 02108.
OBJECTIVE: This study sought to determine whether neurocognitive factors
could discriminate delinquents brought before a juvenile court in a large
urban area from nondelinquent status offenders brought before the same
court. METHOD: Psychological tests were administered to 216 adolescents,
aged 13-15 years, presenting to a large urban juvenile court. One hundred
ten delinquents (65 male and 45 female) were compared to 106 high-risk
nondelinquents (65 male and 41 female) on the WISC-R subtests, the Wide
Range Achievement Test, and the Memory for Designs Test. RESULTS:
Discriminant analysis revealed that the male delinquents could not be
discriminated from the comparison group of male status offenders on the
basis of scores on any of the measures. Among the female subjects, scores
on reading, arithmetic, digit span, and picture completion subtests and the
Memory for Designs Test differed significantly between groups, with some of
the findings favoring status offenders and others favoring delinquents.
CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the findings did not support the hypothesis that
inferior intelligence is an independent risk factor for delinquent
behavior.
