Maxine Winstanley|Roger T. Webb|Gina Conti?Ramsden
Psycholinguistic and socioemotional characteristics of young offenders: Do language abilities and gender matter?
University of Manchester|Manchester Academic Health Science Centre|Manchester Academic Health Science Centre|Centre for Mental Health|University of Manchester|University of Manchester|Manchester Academic Health Science Centre
purpose previous research demonstrates association developmental language disorder dld criminal offending international research also implicates alexithymia overrepresented forensic samples study provides comprehensive examination psycholinguistic socioemotional profiles males females youth justice system focus firsttime entrants context restorative justice rj underpinning youth justice disposals allows informed intervention identifies may compromised ability effectively engage certain interventions methods participants n 145 triage centre youth offending teams mean age 158 completed range standardized psycholinguistic assessments considering nonverbal iq expressive receptive language measures literacy additionally socioemotional measures completed included alexithymia scale strengths difficulties questionnaire results developmental language disorder present 87 participants except emotional score statistically significant gender differences found mean language scores dld group 225 standard deviations normative mean demonstrated greater literacy difficulties high proportion group met criteria alexithymiapossible alexithymia 60 associated dld conclusions high prevalence values dld socioemotional difficulties generally genderspecific found difficulties possibility compromise young persons ability engage rehabilitative strategies language assessment identification difficulties especially dld upon entry youth justice service would assist planning interventions