Illiteracy: A Major Problem Contributing to Juvenile Delinquency

 

Students who struggle in school have been found to have higher incidents of contact with the police and the juvenile court system. In some cases students are able to get the support they need from school officials by participating in Special Education programs that address specific needs the child has in areas of concern, but there are many students who have learning disabilities who are not formally assessed. These students are fall through the cracks and end up getting labeled by their educators as  “dumb,” “immature,“ “emotionally disturbed,” and “lazy,” but the labels do not help eradicate the problem at all. Instead students start to believe what they hear and end up suffering from low self-esteem, frustration, depression and low motivation.

According to Peter Wright, an attorney and advocate of exceptional students, issues related to low literacy rates have the most profound impact on statistics related to juvenile delinquency. In his article entitled Reading Problems and Juvenile Delinquency, Wright gives a personal account of being labeled and hating school because he could not perform and excel in school at the same paces compared to his peers. Luckily, in his experience, he was able to get specialized help to address his specific learning dilatability after being professionally diagnosed with “strephosymbolia” (dyslexia) when he was in the third grade. Unfortunately, many students who suffer from learning disabilities that prevent fluent literacy never get the academic support they need to be successful in school. This can cause a student to lose hope and choose a path of self-destruction. Issues of defiance, acting out, truancy and substance abuse are common ways high risk youth deal with their feelings of failure and frustration. These and similar issues are the very reasons they are removed from traditional academic settings and placed in locked facilities under the supervision of the Juvenile Court System.

Wright believes that a major problem contributing to juvenile delinquency is that “schools and courts help children with learning disabilities learn criminal behavior” by failing to properly address and diagnose health issues related to psychiatric, psychological, and neurological functions that greatly impact a student’s ability to learn. The article contains “extensive research on the low reading grade levels of delinquents, and the relationship between learning disabilities delinquent behavior. He makes specific references to a study that was conducted by the North Carolina Crime Study Commission and quotes their key finding using bolded font that says, “Reading failure is the single most significant factor in those forms of delinquency which can be described as anti-socially aggressive.” He then goes on to provide the insight of a colleague by the name of Milton Brutten, who states:  

"If we can learn to identify these learning disabled adolescents they will not retreat because of their sense of worthlessness, to apathy, lethargy, passivity. They will not on the other hand vent their fury at the humiliations they experienced all through their life in anti-social behavior. They can be trained."

 Brutten’s point of view goes back to the issue of early identification of exceptional students who have learning disabilities, but what happens to students when their “school fails” to diagnose the real issue? Wright suggests that early signs of delinquency involve appropriately dealing with truancy issues because once the student refuses to attend school; it becomes an issue for the courts to deal with. The student then gets thrust into a cyclical pattern. Wright states:

The techniques used to improve school attendance are coercive in nature. Under these circumstances and pressures, the undiagnosed LD child is destined to fail. As frustrations, tensions, and pressures increase, the child develops hostility. He often escapes by using drugs, running away behavior, and delinquent acts.

This article also discussed specific areas impacted by the unsuccessful resolution issues related to undiagnosed learning disabled students. Some of the major points discussed where: 1) Parents of children with learning disabilities are negatively impacted economically. 2) Undiagnosed learning disabled student are placed in classroom settings where a lot of seat time is wasted. 3) It costs the justice system, on average, $10,000 a year to incarcerate one adolescent. 4) Crime victims are negatively impacted by economic and emotional losses.  5) The amount of suffering endured by the undiagnosed LD child cannot be “measured in dollars and cents.”

Students who struggle to read are not predestined for failure, but it is important that they receive the academic support necessary to find success in school. Educators, school officials, family members and community figures can all help contribute to a student’s success. This article made connections between the data related to delinquency and the importance of literacy in helping to shape a student’s outlook on their education. When all of these pieces come students are more likely to find success. I come away from this research being mindful to motivate students and help them build self confidence in their academic abilities, with hopes that they will enjoy learning and make a genuine effort to set goals and reach them.

Wright, P. (2007). Reading problems and juvenile delinquency. Retrieved from http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/jj.delinq.read.probs.htm