The neuropsychological status of adolescent delinquent boys.

The neuropsychological status and neuromotor performance of adolescent boys from lower middle class social environments who were detained as juvenile delinquents were compared to those of non-delinquent, lower and upper middle class controls. The delinquent index group showed pervasive impairment on all language measures, relative to both control groups, but did not differ from the latter on most neuropsychological measures that do not involve linguistic processing. Delinquents also demonstrated more minor neurological signs than either of the control groups; in the delinquents, but not in the control groups, neurological status predicted language performance.