Cognitive Profile and Prevalence of Risk Factors Amongst Youth Offenders in a New Zealand Prison

Youth offenders account for a high proportion of the offending populationindicating a greater need to understand risk factors for offending and means totailor rehabilitation programs to better suit the needs of youth. The aims of thestudy were to characterise cognitive sequalae of those in a youth forensicpopulation and the prevalence of risk factors for poor cognitive developmentand offending behaviour. Fifty participants within a youth forensic unit of aNew Zealand prison completed neuropsychological assessments. Theperformance of the whole group was compared to age matched norms for tasksof general intellectual abilities, visual and verbal skills, executive functions,attention, processing speed, new learning and memory. The participantsperformed significantly lower than age-norms on all measures excluding ameasure of simple processing speed. No significant difference was found whencompared each measures on lifetime incidence of reported head knock andethnic groups (Māori versus NZ European). Risk factors for poor cognitivedevelopment were found to be prevalent in this population (incidence of headinjury, hypoxia, ADHD, fetal alcohol exposure, substance use, hypoxic braininjury, mental health difficulties, intellectual disability, and history of trauma).In conclusion, this youth prison population was found to havedisproportionately high rates of risk factors associated with poorer cognitivedevelopment, and perform worse across all areas of cognitive functioning,compared to the general population. These difficulties and factors may affectyouth offenders’ capacity to benefit from rehabilitation programs and functionboth in prison and the community.