Prison Reading Survey, 1997

There is a widespread belief that literacy levels among offenders are lower than those in the general population. A frequently-associated belief is that if their reading problems were to be addressed, then offenders would abandon anti-social ways and pursue law-abiding careers. The Prison Reading Survey investigates the basis for these beliefs by assessing the prevalence of reading problems in a systematic random sample of 203 adult male offenders serving custodial sentences in a representative selection of several prisons across the range of security classifications in England and Wales. It enquires into the diversity and likely causes or exacerbating circumstances of offenders' reading problems, using a structured interview with assessments of verbal and non-verbal ability, receptive syntax, social cognition, and self-reported behaviours associated with childhood attention-deficit and hyperactivity; and it considers the hypothesis that developmental dyslexia is a disproportionate cause of these problems. The study also reviews the development and pervasiveness of historical accounts of the association between literacy and behaviour.

学界与公众普遍认为，服刑人员的读写能力水平低于普通大众。与之相伴的一个主流假设为：若能改善服刑人员的阅读障碍问题，他们将摒弃反社会行为，转而从事合法职业。本监狱阅读调查（Prison Reading Survey）通过系统性随机抽样，选取英格兰与威尔士境内覆盖全安保等级的多所代表性监狱中的203名正在服监禁刑的成年男性服刑人员作为研究样本，评估其读写障碍的患病率，以此验证上述两种观点的合理性。本次调查采用结构化访谈方法，结合言语与非言语能力、接受性句法、社会认知的评估，以及针对儿童期注意缺陷与多动相关行为的自我报告数据，探究服刑人员读写障碍的多样性、潜在成因及加重因素；同时验证「发展性阅读障碍（developmental dyslexia）是此类读写问题的过度占比诱因」这一研究假说。此外，本研究还梳理了读写能力与行为关联的历史研究发展历程，并探讨该关联的普遍性。