The Mentally Retarded and the Juvenile Court Project CAMIO, Volume 7.

Studied was the relationship of the mentally retarded (MR) and the juvenile court through an attempt to determine the incidence of MR juveniles adjudicated by the juvenile court in one metropolitan county in Texas, to determine the attitude of juvenile probation officers toward the MR delinquent, and to determine the availability of community resources for the care of MR delinquents. Intelligence tests administered to all (48) juveniles adjudicated during a 4-month period revealed that the incidence of MR was about five times higher than in the general population. The MR juveniles tended to come from poorer homes, to have been first arrested at an earlier age, but arrested fewer times than the non-MR juveniles. After one year on probation 2/3 of the MR juveniles compared to 1/2 of the non-MR juveniles, were committed to state training schools. Juvenile probation officers queried appeared to view the prognosis for the MR delinquent as poor, to be unfamiliar with mental retardation, and to view state residential facilities for the retarded as of little assistance to the court. The officers indicated the most significant problems were the lack of community resources and the uncooperative attitudes of parents. Interviews with directors of community based programs showed that directors of agencies for the MR were reluctant to extend services to the delinquent and that directors of agencies dealing with delinquents were reluctant to extend services to the retarded. (DB)