Pamela Snow, PhD, MAPSSchool of Psychology and Psychiatry Monash UniversityAUSTRALIApamela.snow@monash.edu

Martine Powell, PhD, MAPSSchool of PsychologyDeakin UniversityAUSTRALIA3rd Annual Conference of the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group, Norway, June 2010.

Oral language competence and the investigative interview: Evidence from community and incarcerated young offenders

Acknowledgements

• Criminology Research Council• Australian Research Council (Discovery

Program)• Loddon-Mallee Youth Justice• Malmsbury Youth Training Centre

Where in the world??

In this presentation• Oral language competence - what is it and why is it

relevant to the investigative interview?• Our research on the language skills of youth offenders• Implications

– Education – the early years– Early intervention– Forensic Interviewing– Youth Justice Interventions– Restorative Justice Conferencing

Oral language competence and risk in the developmental years

• Positioning oral language competence within a broader risk and protective framework for adolescent mental health

• Social determinants of health and well-being across the life-span

• Early OLC and the long-term protective benefits of transition to literacy / educational attainment

“Language Impairment” – what does it mean?

• Difficulties with auditory processing, i.e. “taking in “ information that is heard, especially if this is long or linguistically complex

• Difficulties formulating one’s own thoughts and ideas into sentences and conversational discourse so they can be shared with others

• Difficulties processing and using non-literal language

Surface and hidden meanings

•Similes •Metaphor •Idiom•Jokes•Sarcasm

Our prior research on the language skills of youth offenders (See Reference List)

• Youth offending as a serious health issue• 3 studies with community samples of male youth

offenders• LI over-represented but under diagnosed• Study No. 3 (n=50 young offenders) – 52% LI• In community sample, LI not explained by low IQ• Questions about possible links between LI and Hx

of violent offending remained unanswered

Current study: Custodial youth offenders

• Low rates of incarceration in Victoria• “Dose-response” relationship between level

of risk and prevalence / severity of LI?• Links between existence of LI and pattern of

offending? (Violent Vs Non-violent)• Links between LI and other developmental

risks (mental health problems, CP involvement)

• Implications for forensic interviewing

Measures: Current Study

Data collection is ongoing – early unpublished data from Study 4

n= 80; (n=100 recruited)

• Test of Language Competence – Expanded Edition: 3 subtests

– Ambiguous Sentences– Figurative language– Listening Comprehension

• Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals 4th edition: Core Language Score

– Concepts and Following Directions, Word Structure, Recalling Sentences and Formulating sentences

Current Study: Measures cont.

• Narrative Language • Cormier-Lang Scale (Offending Severity

and Type)• Depression, Anxiety & Stress Scale

(DASS)• K-BIT2 matrices subtest – NV IQ• Background / Biographical information

All Groups: Age last birthday

Group n Mean SD F p

Control 50 14.5 1.1

CommunityOffenders

50 15.6 1.3

330.4 .000*

CustodialOffenders

80 19.0 .81

*All post-hoc comparisons significant

Nonverbal IQ (K-BIT2 Matrices scaled scores)

Group n Mean SD F p

Controls 50 90.1 14.8

CommunityOffenders

50 84.4 17.8

1.73 ns

CustodialOffenders

80 85.8 18.3

Background Information x Offender groupGroup Yrs

Education completed

Early Intervention %

Out of Home Placement %

Vocational Training%

CommunityOffendersLI

Non-LI

7.6

7.7

46%

26%

n/a62%

54%

CustodialOffendersLI

Non-LI

9.6

10.3

47%

11%

65%

33%

53%

63%

Background Information

Group Yrs Education completed

Early Intervention %

Out of Home Placement %

Vocational Training%

CommunityOffendersLI

Non-LI

7.6

7.7

46%

26%

n/a62%

54%

CustodialOffendersLI

Non-LI

9.6

10.3

47%

11%

65%

33%

53%

63%

Language Impairment: Community Vs Custodial Offender Groups

CommunityOffenders

52%

CustodialOffenders

66%

TLC-E subtest 1 – Understanding Ambiguous Sentences

Group n Mean SD F p

Control 50 8.2 2.6

CommunityOffenders

50 6.3 3.0

34.7 .000*

CustodialOffenders

80 4.4 2.2

*All post-hoc comparisons significantly different

TLC-E subtest 4 – Figurative Language

Group n Mean SD F p

Control 50 8.0 2.8

CommunityOffenders

50 6.2 2.6

21.5 .000*

CustodialOffenders

80 4.9 2.5

*All post-hoc comparisons significantly different

Custodial Group: Language Impairment subgroups x Offending Scores (non-violent and violent)

Summary / Implications

• Further evidence that young offenders are a high-risk group for unidentified language impairment

• Provisional support for the notion of a dose-response relationship between language impairment and risk for serious offending (violent and non-violent)

• Language impairment is not necessarily evident to an interviewer, because….

Language problems are invisible

Language Impairment may masquerade as

• Rudeness• Indifference / lack of

concern• Poor motivation to

cooperate • “Yep, nup, dunno,

maybe”…Minimalist responses

• Suggestibility

Implications cont

• Forensic Interviewing – further (subtle) marginalistion or access to justice and a fair trial?

• ?Need for Speech Language Pathology screen of young offenders

• Interventions delivered in the Youth Justice system

• Restorative Justice Conferencing – a highly verbal, conversational process; genuine expressions of emphatic concern are important

Caveats and Cautions

• Data collection ongoing• Custodial data is unpublished• Cross-sectional so no causal

inferences• Limited range of language

measures• Some reservations re the

sensitivity of the Cormier-Lang Scale

Feltis, B., Powell, M.P., Snow, P.C., & Hughes-Scholes, C.H. (2010). The effect of open-ended questions in eliciting story grammar detail in child abuse interviews. Child Abuse & Neglect, 34, 407-413.

Snow, P.C., Powell, M.B., & Murphett, R. (2009). Getting the story from child witnesses: Exploring the application of a story grammar framework. Psychology, Crime & Law 15(6), 555-568.

Murfett, R., Powell, M.B., & Snow, P.C. (2008). The effect of intellectual disability on children’s adherence to a ‘story-telling’ framework during an investigative interview. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability 33(1), 2-11.

Powell, M.B. & Snow, P.C. (2007). Recommendations for eliciting a disclosure of abuse from a young child. Australian Police Journal, 61(2), 76-80.

Powell, M.B. & Snow, P.C. (2007). A guide to questioning children during the free-narrative phase of an interview about abuse. Australian Psychologist, 42(1), 57-65.

Agnew, S. E., Powell, M.B., & Snow, P.C. (2006). An examination of the questioning styles of police officers and caregivers when interviewing children with intellectual disabilities Legal & Criminological Psychology. 11(1), 35-53.

Publications: Investigative Interviewing .

Publications: Language and risk.Snow, P.C. & Sanger, D.D. (in press). Restorative justice conferencing and the youth offender: Exploring the

role of oral language competence. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. Accepted for publication 8 May 2010.

Antoniazzi, D., Snow, P. & Dickson-Swift, V. (2010). Teacher identification of children at risk for oral language impairment in the first year of school. International Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 12(3), 244-252.

Snow, P.C. (2009). Child maltreatment, mental health and oral language competence: Inviting Speech Language Pathology to the prevention table. International Journal of Speech Language Pathology 11(12), 95-103.

Snow, P.C. (2009). Oral language competence and equity of access to education and health. In K. Bryan (Ed) Communication in Healthcare. Interdisciplinary Communication Studies Volume 1 (Series Editor: Colin B. Grant), (pp 101-134). Bern: Peter Lang European Academic Publishers.

Snow, P.C. & Powell, M.B. (2008). Oral language competence, social skills, and high risk boys: What are juvenile offenders trying to tell us? Children and Society 22, 16-28.

Snow, P.C. & Powell, M.B. (2005). What’s the story? An exploration of narrative language abilities in male juvenile offenders. Psychology, Crime and Law 11(3) 239-253.

Snow, P. & Powell, M. (2004). Interviewing juvenile offenders: The importance of oral language competence. Current Issues in Criminal Justice 16(2), 220-225.

Snow, P.C. & Powell, M.B. (2004). Developmental language disorders and adolescent risk: A public-health advocacy role for speech pathologists? International Journal of Speech Language Pathology 6(4), 221-229.

Humber, E. & Snow, P.C. (2001). The oral language skills of young offenders: A pilot investigation. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 8(1), 1-11.

Thank you

For further information:

Dr Pamela Snow

pamela.snow@monash.edu

Tel +61-3-5440 9006