Anti-social behaviour and police contact among 13- to 15-year-old English adolescents with and without mild/moderate intellectual disability.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the rates of anti-social behaviour (ASB) among adolescents with/without mild/moderate intellectual disability (MMID). To estimate whether any differences could be attributable to differences in exposure to extraneous risk factors.
DESIGN: Secondary analysis of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England.
METHODS: Participants with MMID were identified through data linkage with educational records.
RESULTS: Parents of children with MMID were more likely to report police contact, children with MMID were more likely to self-report fighting/public disturbance, shoplifting and graffiti. When controlling for differences in exposure to extraneous risk factors, MMID was associated with increased rates of police contact and self-reported graffiti, no difference in self-reported shoplifting, reduced rates of self-reported fighting/public disturbance and vandalism.
CONCLUSIONS: Differences in the rates of exposure to extraneous risk factors play an important role in accounting for the differences in the prevalence of self-reported ASB among adolescents with and without MMID.