Alcohol and its relationship to offence variables in a cohort of offenders with intellectual disability.

Background: Alcohol use and misuse may be lower in people with intellectual disability (ID) than in the general population but may be related to offending.

Method: Alcohol-related crime and history of alcohol use was recorded in 477 participants with ID referred to forensic ID services and related to offending.

Results: Level of alcohol-related crime and history of alcohol misuse was lower than in some previous studies at 5.

Face recognition and description abilities in people with mild intellectual disabilities.

Background: People with intellectual disabilities (ID) are as likely as the general population to find themselves in the situation of having to identify and/or describe a perpetrator's face to the police. However, limited verbal and memory abilities in people with ID might prevent them to engage in standard police procedures.

Method: Two experiments examined face recognition and description abilities in people with mild intellectual disabilities (mID) and compared their performance with that of people without ID.

Effect of music on mealtime disruptions.

Background: People with learning disabilities can disrupt mealtimes with non-cooperative, aggressive and self-injurious behaviours that challenge other people to tolerate and manage them. These behaviours appear to arise because the proximity of other people, and the heightened activity and noise of a dining room, causes anxiety and agitation.

Aim: To examine how delivering calming background music via headphones affected anxiety-driven behaviours that disrupted mealtimes.

The impact of known criminogenic factors on offenders with intellectual disability: previous findings and new results on ADHD.

Background: Developmental and index offence variables have been implicated strongly in later criminal behaviour and service pathways and this paper investigated attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) which, with conduct disorder, has emerged from previous studies on offenders. ADHD and conduct disorder are over-represented among criminal populations when compared to the general population. The present authors reviewed the extent to which ADHD affected the presentation of offenders with intellectual disability.

Pathways through services for offenders with intellectual disability: a one- and two-year follow-up study.

The pathways through services for offenders with intellectual disability were reviewed. Participants were 197 offenders with intellectual disability accepted into three types of community and three types of secure forensic intellectual disability services. They were first compared with 280 participants referred but not accepted into services and were then followed-up for 2 years to review pathways through services.

Referrals into services for offenders with intellectual disabilities: variables predicting community or secure provision.

Background: There is a need for research to promote an understanding among service developers on why people with intellectual disabilities (ID) are referred to offender services in order for them to receive appropriate assessment and treatment. Previous studies investigating referrals into forensic ID services have concentrated on referral sources and administrative variables such as legal status.

Aims: To construct a predictive model for choice of service referral based on a comprehensive range of information about the clientele.

The enigma of facial asymmetry: is there a gender-specific pattern of facedness?

Although facial symmetry correlates with facial attractiveness, human faces are often far from symmetrical with one side frequently being larger than the other (Kowner, 1998). Smith (2000) reported that male and female faces were asymmetrical in opposite directions, with males having a larger area on the left side compared to the right side, and females having a larger right side compared to the left side. The present study attempted to replicate and extend this finding.