Adult Dyslexia Organisation

The implications of dyslexia within the criminal justice system

There is no doubt that dyslexic people are both over-represented within the offending population and disadvantaged by many aspects of the criminal justice system. It is also true that concerned and well informed professionals can make a significant difference.

It has been established that dyslexia is a congenital neurological condition (Orton Dyslexia Society, 1995) with implications for education, employment and social interaction. At least 4% of the population is significantly affected; these numbers are found to be far higher amongst offenders.

Research in the States (Klasen, 1972) identified a high level of anxiety and frustration as the most consistent variation between the dyslexic and control group in a study to identify whether there is a “dyslexic personality”. Further investigations have built up a picture of the dyslexic individual as one who may not easily fit in with others, prefers to work alone and often sees close participation in any group as an instance where his/her inadequacies will be shown up yet again (Hales, 1990). In employment, s/he is often performing at a level below his/her potential and has acquired an understandable defensive attitude.

By adulthood many dyslexic people have equipped themselves with an array of coping strategies, diverting some of their energy and ability (either consciously or unconsciously) into the operation of these systems, but thereby leaving themselves few extra resources to call upon when they have to deal with situations that fall within their areas of weakness.

Since dyslexia concerns the processing of information, both written and spoken, as well as expressive language, dyslexic people can clearly be at a disadvantage in conditions which place heavy demands upon them in terms of language and working memory: a prime example of this must be progress through the criminal justice system.

How then can professionals within the criminal justice system seek to redress this disadvantage? The first step must surely be to become fully informed about a condition that affects a significant proportion of the community amongst which they work. Once one is aware of the likely areas of difficulty, the appropriate responses can be put into place as outlined below:

When delivering spoken information:
1. first introduce/explain the topic, then give the details, then summarize;
2. allow thinking time before pressing for a response;
3. when reading information back, insert pauses after each section to allow the information to be internalised;
4. be aware of a likely limited attention span.
A dyslexic person may miss the point when questions are oblique or implied; this is rarely deliberate. In addition, some dyslexic people have a rambling style of discourse which is hard to follow.

When presenting written information, the following can be vital in some cases:
1. written material should be well spaced and of a reasonable font size;
2. justify left only - it is then much easier for a dyslexic person to keep the place;
3. avoid using bright white paper (this sometimes appears to ‘glare’, obscuring the print);
4. some dyslexic people have considerable difficulty extracting the meaning from written material despite being able to read adequately; this can be exacerbated by perceptual problems which cause the print to appear to move or blur (Jameson, 1995).

Sequencing and/or orientation problems will have the following outcomes:
1. great difficulty presenting a sequence of events in a logical structured way;
2. incorrect sequencing of numbers (such as car number plates);
3. inaccurate references to left and right.

In addition, dyslexic people often have a particular problem in estimating the passage of time. It is not difficult to see how dyslexic weaknesses work against the individual as they pass through police and court procedures.

Naturally the areas of weakness vary from individual to individual but under stress any difficulties are likely to be exacerbated which can make certain aspects of functioning almost impossible. All these factors combine to support the case for people with dyslexia to be given special consideration. Guidelines should be circulated within the Probation Service, put into practice by Solicitors and Barristers and incorporated within the provisions of the Code of Practice of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.

All these issues were aired at the conference Dyslexia and the Offender , held in 1977 (papers are available from the Adult Dyslexia Organisation, address below). Moreover, the Adult Dyslexia Organisation (ADO) is now advising the Home Office on the establishment of a programme of screening for dyslexia, to be followed by assessment and appropriate tuition of dyslexic inmates in prisons. ADO is also participating in a working party, convened by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, to investigate links between school exclusion, dyslexia and offending behaviour.

References:

Hales, GW (1990) Personality Aspects of Dyslexia: Meeting Points in Dyslexia British Dyslexia Association

Jameson, M (revised version 1998) Visual Aspects of Dyslexia Adult Dyslexia Organisation

Klasen, E (1972) The Syndrome of Specific Dyslexia Lancaster Medical and Technical Publishing Company

Orton Dyslexia Society (1995) Member’s Definition Orton Dyslexia Society

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