Careers of offenders with an intellectual disability: the probabilities of rearrest.

Cockram (2005) tracked every offender with intellectual disability for 11 years. The study compared their rearrest records to the general offender population.

This was a full-population review, not a small sample. It gives the big picture on how often people with ID return to jail.

People with intellectual disability were rearrested more often than other offenders. The gap stayed wide across the whole 11-year window.

The data say the justice system is cycling these people back through courtrooms and jails at high speed.

Kittler et al. (2004) watched a smaller group for only 10 months and also saw lots of re-offending. Their short study set the stage for this longer view.

Lindsay et al. (2004) looked only at women with ID and found lower re-offending. Cockram (2005) widens the lens and shows the overall picture is worse, proving women are the exception, not the rule.

Stancliffe et al. (2007) tracked sex offenders with ID in the community and saw lower sexual recidivism. Cockram (2005) counts every type of rearrest, so the higher rate in the 2005 paper includes property, drugs, and public-order crimes, not just sex offenses. The two studies measure different slices of the same pie.

If you write behavior plans, discharge summaries, or transition goals, expect rearrest risk to be high. Build in justice-system liaison, probation check-ins, and concrete skill rehearsal for police encounters. Treat recidivism as a likely behavior to prevent, not a rare setback.