Months ago, I received an e-mail from the resource co-ordinator of the Learning Disabilities of Ottawa-Carleton. She advised me that she thought it would be a good idea to write an article about the connection between learning disabilities and crime prevention.
She had come across some startling statistics showing a high number of incarcerated people had learning disabilities. This made sense to me as I had often observed it during my career as a police officer, especially when I worked as a school resource officer.
I mulled over this topic and wondered what angle I should take because the perspectives can be endless. I have seen persons with learning disabilities become victims of the system; not able to thrive and reach their potential because the system failed them. I have seen the impact of them falling between the cracks and how some become victims and others become criminalized. Again, I could have researched the topic and paraded some of my findings and the statistics to support what I am saying, but I will instead appeal to your inner sense of truth and see where that goes.
I will, however, share an official definition for “learning disabilities” just to ensure we start from the same page. The Learning Disabilities Association of Canada defines “learning disabilities” as “…a number of disorders which may affect the acquisition, organization, retention, understanding or use of verbal or non-verbal information. These disorders affect individuals who otherwise demonstrate at least average abilities essential for thinking and/or reasoning. As such, learning disabilities are distinct from global intellectual deficiency…learning disabilities range in severity and may interfere with the acquisition and use of one or more of the following: oral language, reading, written language, mathematics. Learning disabilities may also involve difficulties with organizational skills, social perception, social interaction and perspective taking.”
I must say that I was surprised at how broad this definition is because I’m sure there are people out there, myself included, who might suspect they are potentially suffering from some form of learning disability. Based on this, I think that knowing that you suffer from a learning disability is the key. Without knowing, you would go through life getting increasingly frustrated because you don’t “get it” the way others do and this can be debilitating for your self esteem and it would impact your ability to function in society.
So how does one go from being a person with a learning disability to a person sitting in a jail cell? This was the question that most interested me as a police officer and as a concerned member of society. In discussions with the resource co-ordinator of LDOC and after reviewing some of the research data, I found that there is an unmistakable connection between early diagnosis and early intervention with someone who has a learning disability and the chance that they become criminalized. Persons who were not diagnosed and therefore did not receive any support for their disability are more vulnerable because their behaviour can be seen as anti-social and they can easily be marginalized from the rest of the community. These feelings of rejection can turn from frustration to anger and without the filters to cope with these emotions, violent behaviour can ensue.
When I worked as a school resource officer, I was called upon numerous times to deal with an “out of control” youth who had become so violent that the school administrators felt that a police officer’s presence and a possibility of a criminal charge were necessary to resolve the matter. In most cases, it was soon revealed to me that the youth suffered from a learning disability and to me this would change everything in my approach. I still remember the challenge of trying to find a resolution that would satisfy the victim, the school and not further marginalize the youth who committed the criminal act (usually an assault). This is because I fundamentally knew that laying a criminal charge would not even begin to address the situation. In my experience, a person with a learning disability would only see a criminal charge as further evidence that society sees them as the problem, not the fact that they simply are not able to process information the same way as others.
Once a charge is laid, the person with a learning disability also has the stigma of potentially being labelled a “criminal” and this further prevents them from being understood, supported and integrated into society so that they can enjoy the same quality of life as the rest of us. If persons with learning disabilities are not functioning well in our schools and society because there is not enough funding, resources and/or general support around their specific issues, then why should we punish those whose frustration leads them to commit acts that are outside of acceptable social norms? Allowing persons who suffer from learning disabilities to become victims and/or criminals and/or marginalized persons, should not be our way of dealing with them or this issue. If this is what the rest of us think is an acceptable solution, then we all need to take a long look in the mirror.
If early identification, intervention, on going support and access to resources is part of the overall strategic solution, then we should all engage ourselves so that this becomes the norm, not the exception when dealing with persons suffering from learning disabilities. Does this truly work? Well, I will let you be the judge. Here is an e-mail that I received recently from a student that I had dealt with years ago when I was a school resource officer. He was gracious enough to give me permission to share it with all of you.
“Hi Constable Hoedeman,
You may not remember me, but in grade 8 (2001/2002) I was suspended from Franco-Ouest for fighting and was facing a possible charge of assault, you were in charge of the case. I don’t know what prompted me to think of it, but I wanted to thank you again for helping me at that time. I’m now in my third year of electrical engineering at Carleton University and I can honestly say that had you not gotten through to me at that time, I would not be where I am today. I’ve recently been diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger’s Syndrome, which I believe played a role in my difficulties as a youth, but you had a big impact on me and sparked a change in my attitude. I spent high school at a boarding school where I was able to learn how to control my violent meltdowns (rather, I forced myself to in order to avoid your threat of an assault charge if you found out that I had gotten into more fights), and I haven’t been in a physical fight of any kind in over four years and my last serious conflict was the aforementioned incident in grade 8.
So I just wanted to say thank you and keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Luc”
For more information on offenders with learning disabilities please visit:
http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/text/rsrch/reports/r141/r141-eng.shtml