Differences in neuropsychological and academic achievement between adolescent delinquents and status offenders

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.