ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the current clinical and research literatures focused on individuals with intellectual disability (ID) who have offended, including those who remain in community settings, and in particular, those found in correctional and forensic settings. It uses the term ID to reference individuals who experience significantly impaired intellectual functioning, and impairments in their adaptive and social functioning, with deficits present from childhood or adolescence. Although this definition overlaps considerably with the diagnostic criteria outlined in the most recent iteration of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Edition, the term is not intended to be restricted only to those individuals who would meet DSM-5 criteria for ID. Instead, this chapter refers broadly to the spectrum of offenders who present with these difficulties, including individuals with autism spectrum disorder, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
