Functional Assessment within Community Settings for Offenders with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

The use of functional assessment methods has long been a central aspect of Applied Behaviour Analysis with different methods developed to aid in the assessment of the function of challenging behaviour. Despite extensive research existing regarding functional assessment, there exists a lack of research with regards functional assessment within community settings for offenders with intellectual disabilities. The current study aimed to reduce this literature gap by applying various functional assessment methods in community settings for offenders with intellectual disabilities and assessing their utility for determining the function of the participants’ challenging behaviours. The results showed that differences in the suggested function existed across the different assessment methods with certain methods providing clearer information than others. Possible reasons for these differences and the overall utility of functional assessment within the current study’s setting and population are discussed as well as possible limitations. Overall it is concluded that functional assessment within community settings for offenders with intellectual disabilities is both applicable and an area requiring further development and research.