Characteristics of defendants with intellectual disability identified within court liaison & diversion services.

Introduction: There is research highlighting a significant number of adults with intellectual disability within correction facilities including an increased risk for mental disorder in a prison setting. However, there is little evidence on the characteristics of defendants with intellectual disability when presenting to the Criminal court system. Objectives: To establish the characteristics of defendants screened for intellectual disability by Court Liaison & Diversion Services within London, England. Methods: This is a retrospective data analysis of routine administrative data collected by the Liaison and Diversion services across the criminal courts of London, England. Data was analysed on those identified through screening to have intellectual disability in order to compare with those defendants identified to have only a mental illness. Results: 8905 defendants were identified through the database with 347 (4%) of the total identified to have intellectual disability (ID) with just under 16% of those with ID being female. Data will be presented on rates of identified psychiatric disorder, substance use and self-harm risk. There was no significant difference in rates of schizophrenia and depression between two groups. However, the ID group had significantly higher rates of alcohol misuse, drug misuse and current suicide/self-harm risk using chi-square analysis test reporting at the 0.05 level. Conclusions: The findings confirm the presence of small but significant number of defendants with intellectual disability presenting to the Court Liaison & Diversion services. The implications will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]