Perspective-taking among offender and nonoffender youth

Research has shown that adolescents show varying abilities in the area of social perspective-taking. The relative importance of offender and nonoffender status or sex on perspective-taking abilities is still unclear. The purpose of this paper was to investigate differences between male and female offender and nonoffender youth in this area. Subjects of the study were 117, 14- and 15-year-old adolescents, 64 boys and 53 girls from three juvenile facilities and one public high school in the midwest. Perspective-taking was assessed by having subjects take the Rest's Defining Issue Test (DIT) three consecutive times, as himself/herself, as a teacher, and as a police officer. Findings of the study indicated that 14- and 15-year-old offenders and non-offenders did not differ in their perspective-taking ability across three social roles. One explanation for this finding may be that younger adolescents are in developmental transition in this domain of cognitive functioning. Suggestions for future research in this area were made.