There has been much research about the poor literacy (reading and writing) skills of juvenile offenders, but little research examining the oral language capacities of this at-risk population. The performance of a group of 30 young male offenders completing community-based juvenile-justice orders was compared with that of a group of 50 males attending State government secondary schools in the same region of metropolitan Melbourne (Australia). The young offenders studied were an average of 2 years older than the comparison group. Testing included three of the four subtests of the Test of Language Competence Level 2-Expanded Edition, and the Speed of Comprehension of Language Processing Test. In addition to these direct measures of language competence, some background information was requested of participants in relation to their developmental history. The results showed that young offenders were at high risk for difficulties with auditory processing, manipulating, and understanding abstract linguistic concepts, such as figurative language, metaphor, and ambiguities. Also, they had difficulty using story grammar (a universal structure for relaying information in a logical and sequential manner) to generate a simple narrative. These findings have implications in forensic interviewing of young offenders; early intervention for young children that display comorbid learning and behavior disturbances; and service delivery at the program level for young offenders engaged with the juvenile justice system. Implications of these findings pertain to examining the relationship between language skills and social skill, and exploring the ways in which the findings can be applied to service delivery models within the juvenile justice system. Longitudinal research is required in order to explore possible causal connections between developmental language impairment and risk for juvenile offending. 6 figures, 5 tables, 2 appendices, 33 references