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Article: Literacy, numeracy and non-verbal reasoning skills of South Australian young offenders.(Statistical Data Included)
- Article from:
- Australian Journal of Education
- Article date:
- August 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Australian Council for Educational Research. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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This study attempts to quantify the basic literacy and numeracy skill levels of detained young offenders in Australia. Subjects were 561 youths in secure care in South Australia. Comparative data were available for 136 local high school students. Compared with student peers, the young offenders performed poorly on measures of reading, spelling, mental arithmetic, analogue time telling and non-verbal reasoning. Among the sub-groups, male Aboriginal offenders had the highest proportion of low achievers. This could be a factor in their overrepresentation in the criminal justice system. Their results suggest that environmental variables play a significant role in their ...