Offenders with Developmental Disabilities
Chapter One
NATURAL HISTORY AND THEORIES
OF OFFENDING IN PEOPLE WITH
DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES
William R. Lindsay, Peter Sturmey and John L. Taylor
This chapter reviews the natural history and theories about the development of
offending behaviour in people with intellectual disabilities, and the extent to which
current theories on the genesis of offending behaviour are relevant to this client
group. If they are relevant, then what are the limits on this relevance and what other
factors do we have to take into account because of intellectual disability itself? The
first part of this chapter provides a summary of descriptive studies relating crime
to intelligence and other potentially relevant factors. The second part investigates
the various hypotheses about the development of offending behaviour such as
genetic factors, familial influences, intelligence, environmental factors, peer group
influences, the role of the media, developmental factors and the way in which
criminal careers may develop in this client group. In the final section we provide
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