Specific reading retardation, hyperactive child syndrome, and juvenile delinquency

Abstract

An attempt was made to ascertain the extent to which a specific reading retardation leads to criminal development in adolescents and to what factors such development is due in these cases. For this purpose, 224 adolescents with a specific reading retardation were investigated. A relatively large number of these (12.1%) were prone to criminality between the ages of 15 and 20 yr; the severity of the specific reading retardation did not seem to contribute to this propensity. Symptoms of hyperactivity seemed to contribute to criminal behavior.