Assessment of retardation among mentally retarded criminal offenders: An examination of racial disparity

Racial disparity among incarcerated retarded offenders presents a complex issue for the criminal justice system. The major criticism is that ethnic minorities might be mistakenly identified as being mentally retarded because of the inherent cultural insensitivity in the assessment instruments used. The present study, which includes 288 criminal offenders diagnosed as mentally retarded and admitted to the Mentally Retarded Defendant Program (MRDP), Florida State Hospital, during 1977-1991, examines the interrelationship between mental retardation and racial disparity in its contributing factors. Results show that deficits in adaptive behavior and intelligence quotient (IQ) are two primary factors in defining mental retardation. Race is not statistically correlated with mental retardation. Regardless of race, offenders are consistently diagnosed as having severe mental retardation if they had a severe deficit in adaptive behavior or a low IQ score. This study's results also suggest that assessment instruments, such as IQ tests, which were employed to measure mental retardation among MRDP retarded criminal offenders, are not racially discriminatory.