Delinquency and learning disabilities: More evidence

The article adds to the growing body of data establishing a relationship between learning disabilities and juvenile delinquency. Intervention strategies are discussed. Poremba (1975) reviewed a fairly large number of studies that indicated a relationship between learning disabilities or difficulties and juvenile delinquency. Bachara and Zaba (1978) suggested that the critical concern must be with identi-fying learning disabled delinquents so that appropriate remediation can be of-fered. The present study provides more data on the identification of delinquents with learning difficulties. (The authors prefer the term learning difficulties in the context of this paper.) METHOD Subjects were 72 male adjudicated delin-quents (mean age = 14.27 years; mean grade level = 8.17) and 27 female adju-dicated delinquents (mean age = 14.51 years; mean grade level = 8.70). All delinquents had been referred to the psy-chiatric service of the Toronto Family Court for assessment by the court. They were assessed, for purposes of this study, on the Raven Progressive Matrices (Rave