Violent behavior in autism is more experienced by autistic people than expressed by them. The assumption of a relation between autism and violent behavior is common in public opinion, but the scientific evidence does not establish any causality of autism spectrum disorder in a predisposition to delinquency or crime. Overall crime and delinquency rates are likely to be lower among the autism community than in the general population, although some targeted acts such as sexual assault and arson may be more common. The violence expressed by autistic people is the result of sensory hypersensitivities and ignorance of the consequences of their actions, due to difficulties in empathy and understanding social codes, rather than a willingness to commit a violent, delinquent, or criminal act. Associated disorders, such as attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity, appear to be involved in violent behavior rather than autism alone. The Irish psychiatrist Michael Fitzgerald supposed the existence of a specific subpopulation who are focused on violence and combining autism and psychopathy, but this hypothesis has not been confirmed.
This idea of an association between autism and violence is particularly relevant to individuals diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, whose actions have been popularized by media reports of mass murderers, particularly Adam Lanza and Anders Behring Breivik. Media reports also mention that autism spectrum disorders are related to serial killers and cybercriminals, as shown in the movie The Accountant. Studies of the psychological profile of mass murderers point to entanglements between psychological traits classically associated with predispositions to violence, such as narcissistic personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder, with autism being a possible "aggravating" factor, but not the unique cause of such violence.
There is a clear relation between received and expressed violence. The social phenomenon of ableism creates a bias in the perception of autistic people, with many behaviors being interpreted as dangerous by those around them, while the violence that they receive is normalized, and therefore invisible. The erroneous idea that autistic people are violent and dangerous by nature is a source of social exclusion, and therefore of denial of rights for this population, which is often the victim of involuntary hospitalization and judicial errors.
Social perception
A popular view associates autism with inappropriate behaviors, violence, delinquency, and crime, especially in the English, French, and German-speaking media.
The anthropologist and psychoanalyst Claude Wacjman notes a public misperception of autism in France, with an American mass murderer, for example, being immediately labeled as autistic in the French media on December 14, 2012. In an editorial in the journal Autism, British psychologist Katie Maras and her team cite an article headline in the Daily Mail, devoted to the same case, including autism in the "recipe for the serial killer". On France inter, in October 2013, the neuropsychiatrist Serge Bornstein cites Asperger syndrome as common among American mass killers. Individual cases of autistic people versed in cybercrime and terrorism have also been documented in the press. The headlines of these articles maintain the perception of a link between autism, violence, and criminality. The film The Specials has a line that autism educators "take a beating all day”.
An analysis of a corpus of 100 works of children's and young people's literature featuring a main character with a disability, published in French and Italian between 1995 and 2005, shows that autistic people are essentially presented as violent, despite the rejection of such an image by autistic people as well as by their parents or health professionals: "In children's literature, the violence of the hero with a disability, which manifests itself in screaming, yelling, biting or hitting, appears as the specificity of characters with autistic syndrome ".
According to Anne McGuire, sociology researcher, Robert Chapman, professor at King's College London, and Mohammad Ghaziuddin, child psychiatrist, there is a significant bias in the way that information about violence in autism is processed: violence received by non-autistic people from autistic people and individual cases of autistic people committing violent or criminal acts are highly visible in the media, whereas violence experienced by autistic people is invisible, or considered "normal", leading (according to McGuire) to "a collective cultural failure to recognize violence against autistic people as a significant and pressing socio cultural issue".
Scientific hypotheses and responses
The media question of a link between autism, violence, and crime has led to scientific interest in the issue. According to Mohammad Ghaziuddin, people with autism "are prone" to temper tantrums. He notes, however, that their frequency is higher in young children and in those diagnosed with associated intellectual disability.
The main argument used to justify a link between autism, crime, delinquency, and violence is the empathy of autistic people. A counter-argument is the tendency of people with autism to follow the rules.
Delinquency and crime statistics
Criminal law experts have long questioned the assumption that individuals with autism are predisposed to commit criminal acts due to a lack of reliable research (2012), particularly on adolescents and adults. In addition, these studies have primarily been conducted on individuals diagnosed with Asperger syndrome (AS), in hospital or prison, involving small, unrepresentative samples, usually without a control group.
In 1991, Mohammad Ghaziuddin and his team estimated that the rate of violence was low among people diagnosed with Asperger: out of 132 case studies, only 3 involved people with Asperger people with a history of violence. In 2009, a review of the scientific literature by the Australian researcher Andrew Cashin concluded that people with autism are "potentially overrepresented in the criminal justice system". In contrast, other researchers have pointed out that there is no scientific evidence linking criminal behavior to autism, nor is there evidence that people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or Asperger disorder are predisposed to violence and crime and/or overrepresented in the criminal law. In 2009, Niklas Långström and colleagues statistically studied 422 individuals diagnosed with ASD, and admitted to hospital and concluded that "violent delinquency in individuals with ASD is related to concomitant psychopathology similar to that previously found in violent individuals without A".
A review of the scientific literature on delinquency in children and adults with autism, published in September 2017, concludes that there is no evidence of an association between autism spectrum disorder and delinquency. Two studies examining the potential relationship between autism and juvenile delinquency, Kumagami et al.'s study conducted in Japan between 2006 and 2007 and Cheely et al.'s study conducted in South Carolina (2012), conclude that there is less crime among individuals with autism than in the general population. Similarly, the 2017 recension establishes that the overall rate of delinquency is lower among individuals with autism than among non-autistic individuals.
It is possible that a subpopulation of individuals with autism with a specific profile are more likely than the general population to commit targeted crimes such as arson (according to NAS),sexual assault, and armed theft. Mohammad Ghaziuddin notes that in the case of arson, the primary motive is an interest and fascination with fire.
Risk and protective factors
Mohammad Ghaziuddin distinguishes between general risk factors for violence (common to the entire population) and factors specific to individuals with autism. General factors include low social class, poor parenting, and a chaotic environment. Specific risk factors for autistic people include a family history of psychiatric disorders and criminality. According to the study by the Swedish researchers Ragini Heeramun et al, another risk factor for violence identified was being male. Delayed diagnosis of autism has also been identified as a factor in violence.
A successful school history leads to a decrease in this risk. Similarly, high-functioning autistic people are more likely to commit violent and intentional criminal acts than non-verbal individuals.
Confusion or relation between psychopathy and autism
An explanation for the perception of a high proportion of violent and criminal autistic individuals lies in the Austrian physician Hans Asperger's original description of what he called "autistic psychopathy" in 1944, leading to a confusion between Asperger syndrome and psychopathy. Indeed, in his original description of four autistic adolescents, Asperger mentions a history of physical aggression, and a fascination with blood and poison. A study of 177 Austrians diagnosed with "autistic psychopathy" according to Asperger's criteria, however, showed no difference from the crime rate in the general population. Hippler et al. conclude that "there is a public perception that people with mental health diagnoses in general, and Asperger syndrome in particular, present a threat to the public. We argue that, based on follow-up data from the original Asperger's cohort, as well as from other studies, this perception is incorrect".
In a book published in 2010 and republished in 2012, the Irish psychiatrist Michael Fitzgerald proposes the return of the diagnosis of "autistic psychopathies" as a subcategory of Asperger syndrome, based on case studies of criminal cases. He characterizes the people concerned by their insensitivity and absence of emotions, or "empathy deficit". His book has been criticized by the American psychiatrist Leafar F. Espinoza, who finds the hypothesis of a possible association between autism and psychopathy interesting, but regrets that the book consists mainly of a collection of anecdotes for the general public rather than a scientific demonstration.
Associated disorders
According to the Swedish researcher Sebastian Lundström and his team, attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD) may be a cause of violent behavior, but not autism. This theory has been confirmed by a study of the effects of attention deficit disorder on autism. This theory was confirmed by another study, published in 2017, which concluded that "individuals with autism, especially high functioning individuals, appear to have a higher risk of violent offense. However, these associations are markedly attenuated when attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or conduct disorder are considered”. A 2008 comorbidity study found that a significant number of violent criminals diagnosed with Asperger had comorbid psychiatric disorders, such as schizoaffective disorder. Mohammad Ghaziuddin emphasizes the importance of diagnosing psychiatric comorbidities before attributing autism causation to violent behavior, particularly to determine the presence of depression or psychotic spectrum disorder.
Psychoanalytic interpretations
According to the Freudian psychoanalyst Bernard Seynhaeve (2016), the violence of autistic people is due to a "problematic, hindered, or even non-existent relationship to the dimension of the Other", and to a perception of the body as "a surface without a hole": "if it has no hole, the subject also has no object of exchange with the world, with the Other. Pure surface, the body-shell is what happens to a body whose orifices are all blocked". He adds that the autistic person constitutes "a clothing-shell that he refuses to remove", and that "violence is part of a logic where the excess of excitation cannot be treated by the subject. Either because the excess of excitation invades his body, or because the Other tries to break into the body-shell". It is possible that looking at a face is very invasive, if not violent for an autistic person, in particular if an insistent look is imposed on him: according to Chantal Lheureux-Davidse, "it seems more adequate to privilege the respect of the avoidance of the look by considering that the communication would be better out of the imposed look and would greatly decrease the violence". The French psychoanalyst and psychometrician Fabien Joly estimates (2010) that "a dialectic of the autistic violence appears in some kind of vicious circles alternating between a psychic suicide, an erasure, even a mutilation, of oneself; and at the same time repeated conducts of desperate bodily research of tested of oneself, until in the self-mutilation or the most extreme and most terrifying explosions". He adds that the most manifest violence testifies to a "fragile and explosive opening of the autistic shell".
The Austrian psychoanalyst Michael Turnheim (2003) points out the existence of a relation between violence, autism and writing, which he relates to the refusal to speaks.
According to Valérie Rousselon and Gaële Bonnefoy, autistic children create a flaw in parental narcissism.
Criminal case studies
Individual cases of autistic criminals have been studied. Simon Baron-Cohen published in 1988 about a 21-year-old violent British Asperger adult. D. Mawson and his team studied a 44-year-old American adult male in 1985. However, these cases do not allow us to generalize the predisposition to violence to the entire autistic community. Murders committed by people with autism, specifically with Asperger Syndrome or high-functioning autism, have, however, been the subject of many comments. According to Mohammad Ghaziuddin, it appears that these murders are the result of an obsessive interest.
A study by the Swedish researcher Clare Allely and her team, published in 2014, concluded that the share of mass murderers and serial killers with autism is greater than that of ASD in the general population: out of a randomized sample of 75 American mass murderers, six had a medical diagnosis of autism. This study has been interpreted as evidence of an association between ASD and homicidal behaviors in the press. According to Katie Maras et al. the small sample size of Allely's study and the methodology used do not allow for such a conclusion.
The psychological profile of two mass murderers sometimes considered autistic, Adam Lanza and Anders Behring Breivik, was analyzed by Clare Allely, who concluded that their actions were not explained by autism alone, but rather by the intertwining of various factors, including the association between ASD and narcissistic personality disorder, which she said forms "a particularly 'explosive' combination that increases the risk that an autistic individual may engage in extremely violent behavior". The Office of the Child Advocate′ s report on Adam Lanza "does not seek to establish a relation between [...] autistic individuals and violence", and notes that Lanza received no medical guidance or support despite his diagnosis. Anders Breivik was diagnosed with both Asperger's syndrome, narcissistic personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder.
Jeffrey Dahmer, a cannibalistic and necrophiliac serial murderer, was retrospectively diagnosed as an autistic Asperger in 2002.Michael Fitzgerald also identified murderers Ted Bundy and Timothy McVeigh as psychopaths with autism.
Types of Violence Expressed by People with Autism
The definition of violence can vary. In particular, a distinction is necessary between violence with or without intent and/or awareness of committing a criminal act. Three types of violence can potentially be expressed by people with autism:
- violence inflicted voluntarily on others (or hetero-aggression);
- violence inflicted involuntarily on others, and
- violence directed against oneself (or self-aggression/self-mutilation).
In addition to these three types of violence, Fabien Joly cites "silent violence ". Autistic people have problems with social judgment, but they do not lose touch with reality. The frequency of anger and behaviors perceived as violent is extremely variable from one person to another. According to Anne-Sophie Ferry (ABA graduate and mother of an autistic child), "autism is not characterized by violence or outbursts of anger", the latter being the result of communication difficulties. Similarly, according to the French philosopher and autistic person Josef Schovanec, these so-called problem behaviors "essentially translate the distress, the incomprehension and the inability to communicate of a person who has been, sometimes during his whole life, put out of state to carry out the most elementary learning”. The child psychiatrist Catherine Milcent emphasizes that a wait-and-see policy has led, particularly in France, to the abandonment of autistic people in a vegetative state, leading to institutional violence. She also emphasizes the frequent impossibility for autistic people to communicate their need to be alone or to simply say "no", leading, in extreme cases, to violent crises. These extreme behaviors are generally associated with "severe" autism. The violence can be directed towards a living being or an object. Child psychiatrist Mohammad Ghaziuddin advises that the causes of angry or violent behavior should be sought first and foremost in the environment (school, family or medical), and that each case should be treated individually, but points out that medication is commonly prescribed in cases of endangerment, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and anticonvulsants.
Intentional Violence towards people or Hetero-Aggression
The intentionality of the violence expressed by autistic people is a matter of controversy. According to Mohammad Ghaziuddin, a difference in intentionality probably exists depending on whether or not there is an "intellectual deficit". According to the French psychiatrist-psychoanalyst Chantal Lheureux-Davidse, in institutions, non-verbal autistic adolescents may express violent behaviors: "some of them may spit, bite, scratch or throw themselves at others in a relentless manner and hurt them without them realizing how dangerous their actions are". According to Daoud Tatou, a social worker with severely disabled autistic people in Île-de-France (2011), autistic people who express hetero-aggression "are trying to protect themselves from being destroyed or from the fear of being destroyed. Now we know that, for autistic people, many situations that are not anticipated or understood can be a source of frustration and generate violence".
The tendency of autistic people to follow routines can lead to aggressive behavior if these routines are disrupted. The attachment to these inflexible routines can be perceived as a tyrannical constraint by others, as a change or disruption in routine can result in a tantrum. Dr. Ghaziuddin advises that these routines should be adhered to, as much as possible.
Violence involuntarily inflicted on others
Some behavioral characteristics of autistic people are wrongly interpreted as violence by those around them: dislike of physical contact, lack of eye contact and lack of response to parents' voices. This fact can lead to rejection: according to the Italian psychologist and psychotherapist Cinzia Raffin, "Even to one's own family, unconsciously but incessantly, what the autistic person inflicts is violence”. Catherine Milcent points out that daily life with autistic people can be very frustrating, because they ask and demand more than they give. On the other hand, non-verbal autistic people may have inappropriate gestures in terms of force and impact on the other person, leading them to be mistaken for violent gestures. The violence of these gestures can be reduced by encouraging the autistic person to slow down their movements.
The sensory hypersensitivities of autistic people in their environment trigger reactions that are perceived as violent: "in order to obtain appeasement and a reduction in this sensory intensity, (young autistic people) sometimes try to unload this overflow, in an impulsive manner, by avoidance or clawing gestures, without measuring the potential violence. This violence is to be understood not in an intention to hurt, but as an attempt at sensory regulation”. The entourage can lend "an aggressive intentionality where there is rather an attempt to appease spatial and physical anxieties at the cost of gestures which prove to be painful and sometimes dangerous”. Daoud Tatou considers that "one does not have the impression that this violence is there to harm but on the contrary to defend oneself from an external world which is experienced by them as intrusive, frustrating, unsuitable, foreign, and thus as distressing”.
Autistic people are often very folk in their social skills, which can lead to violent and criminal acts (especially under the influence of others), but not perceived as such by the person committing them. According to a paper from the National Autistic Society in Northern Ireland, "people with autism are often so isolated in their focus that they are unaware of the effect their actions might have on others, or that these actions might lead them to put themselves in danger. An individual may also not realize that by acting in a certain way, they have committed a crime".
Self-aggression
Leo Kanner mentioned the presence of self-harm in his early descriptions of autism. The frequency of self-harm among people with autism seems to be quite high, especially among those with associated learning disability.
Several explanatory hypotheses have been proposed, including that of a staging of anguish, that of gestures aimed at making people forget a "greater psychic suffering", or a consequence of "motor incoordination”. The American psychologist (PhD) Bernard Rimland notes that "nothing is worse for a parent than to be confronted with his or her child's self-harmful and aggressive behaviors”. He cites cases of autistic individuals who "violently bang their heads against walls or the floor" children who have inflicted skull fractures, retinal detachments, lost their hearing, broken their noses, deformed their ears, or blinded themselves with fists or knees, or who bite themselves. Rimland's advice is to first look for the cause of the aggression. He advises that the causes should be sought first, pointing out that non-verbal autistic children self-harm because of severe physical pain due to somatic illnesses, especially gastric illnesses. Another important cause of self-harm is the lack of a proper diet. Anothrelevtnt ca cause of self-harm is an external stimulus perceived as harmless by non-autistic people, but which will place autistic people in a situation of significant stress: the testimony of the autistic woman Temple Grandin demonstrated the importance of these sensory hypersensitivities in triggering self-harm.
Rimland notes that behavioral methods can reduce self-harm in 60% of cases, and that medications such as Naltrexone can be prescribed and are effective in reducing self-harm, although they have many undesirable side effects, particularly that of masking the presence of pain due to somatic illness.
Self-harm often generates a sense of horror and revulsion in those who witness it, exacerbating the discrimination and level of social disability of people with autism.
Violence against autistic people
According to professors Anne McGuire and Robert Chapman, the violence received by autistic people is frequent and regular, but not very visible or considered. This violence occurs in medical, educational, professional, judicial, and family situations, and can be physical or verbal, as illustrated by the frequent use of the word "autistic" as an insult, for example, in the French language and the English language, associating disability with a defect. According to two social scientists from the University of Kent (2015), people with autism, like many people with disabilities, are often victims of hate crimes, and many live in fear.
According to the review conducted by Dr. Katherine D. Tsatsanis (Canadian neuropsychologist) in 2003, children diagnosed with Asperger's are more likely to be victims of violence than tormentors. Violence against non-verbal autistic people is also facilitated by the fact that they are unable to talk about it and report it: in general, the more a person is considered to be "in a weak situation", or as a "severe" case, the more vulnerable he or she is to violence and exclusion. Dependence is an aggravating factor, especially if daily assistance is required for everyday activities (meals, washing, etc.). The "seriousness" of the disability can thus be invoked to justify all types of violence, including murder. According to Cinzia Raffin, "certain aberrant sexual practices leading to sexual assault can be triggered by the beauty of certain autistic children or adults combined with their inability to understand what it is all about". Thus, in one article, sexual assaults against autistic people are legitimized by their beauty or lack of understanding of the sexual context, while according to the author, "stereotypies and rituals [of autistic people] become torture for parents when they are forced to accept them".
Parents of children with autism also face violence in the announcement of the diagnosis, the care, the need to organize their days in the absence of support from the school and medical/social system, and the judgment of others on their children.
When the diagnosis is announced
According to Dr. Cinzia Raffin, "the fact of using ambiguous terms or delaying the diagnosis under the pretext of not 'labelling' the child with a diagnosis of autism at an early stage, this fact, this conduct, is ethically culpable [...] it is to act as if autism were a reprehensible thing, a crime that would remain on the criminal record”. Testimonies from French parents report violence in the announcement of the diagnosis, difficulties in accepting it, and very negative remarks, for example from midwives suggesting that autistic babies should not live.
In institutions
Testimonies and press articles report violence and mistreatment against institutionalized autistic people. The associations Vaincre l'autisme and SOS Autisme France have illustrated themselves in the years 2000 and 2010 with accusations of deliberate mistreatment in French care institutions.Sandrine Bonnaire's documentary film Elle s'appelle Sabine (2007) shows the regression of an autistic woman who became more violent during her five years of institutionalization.
These testimonies report denials of human rights, autistic people forcibly strapped to beds, forced to defecate on themselves, or locked in 10 m2 cells, or even in metal cages. In 2014, the Collectif autisme estimated that 43.8% of French autistic people are or have been victims of mistreatment in institutions dedicated to their care. According to Sophie Le Callennec (adoption specialist) and Florent Chapel (president of the Collectif autisme and administrator of the Fondation Autisme), they are given high doses of medication for the tranquility of the staff. The reasons for this mistreatment are multiple, but more particularly due to the lack of personnel and the inexperience of the care assistants left to their own devices.
The doctor in psychology Serge Dalla Piazza cites (2007) cases of non-verbal autistic children sewn up with raw wounds, on the grounds that they would not have any perception of pain. The autistic person's act of defense against pain can also be interpreted as an act of violence. The French sociologist Brigitte Chamak reports a complaint of abuse against a center using cognitive behavioral therapy techniques. This received little media attention.
In the family environment
In the family environment, the lack or absence of communication on the part of autistic people leads to violence on the part of those around them, in particular parents, who may be waiting for a gesture of tenderness, or frustrated by the fact that the autistic person is paying more attention to an object than to themselves. Repetition of these behaviors over an extended period of time is a key factor in the occurrence of peer abuse. However, abuse of children with autism by their families does not appear to be more frequent than average. Parents of children with autism often receive remarks (verbal abuse) about their children's behavior from strangers who are unaware of their children's autism.
Cases of infanticide, usually committed by the mother of the child with autism, have been documented. "Dozens" of murders have been reported in the Western press over the past decade, particularly in the Canadian press.The Autistic Self Advocacy Network notes 36 (all involving people with disabilities, primarily autism) in 2012. Anne McGuire points out that each murder case is treated individually, but that the general motive given for each is "autism" or "living with autism". Testimony on this subject emphasizes the supposed severity of autism, and the despair it generates. A form of extreme violence, the murder of autistic people by their relatives is justified by the bad public perception of autism, assimilated to a "lifelong pathology" that should be fought. According to Anne McGuire, some of this violence results from the medical model of autism, which promotes a vision of autism as a disease to be eradicated or an abnormality to be normalized. The extreme violence is illustrated by the accounts of murderers who want to "kill autism" in the hope of making their loved ones "normal".
The fact that the parents belong to a lower social class seems to be a predisposing factor to murder, as these infanticidal mothers did not have the financial resources to benefit from effective support for their disabled children.
In the school environment
When children with autism have access to schools, they often experience bullying. Stephen M. Shore notes that situations of violence expressed by individuals diagnosed with Asperger and attending school are preceded by "a long history of harassment and social alienation by classmates". Approximately 63% of children in U.S. schools who are harassed by other children have autism spectrum disorders. Children and adolescents with autism are also more easily targeted for sexual assault because of their difficulties in understanding socio-sexual relationships. There are also cases of physical assault and theft.
According to a survey by the Italian foundation Bambini e autism, school violence received by students with autism is quite rare, if not absent, during the kindergarten and primary school years. On the other hand, it is common during the school years. According to Mohammad Ghaziuddin, this school violence is exacerbated at the middle school age (between 9 and 13 years old).
School violence can be easily prevented by raising students' awareness of autism, which can significantly reduce bullying situations.
Sociological analysis of the phenomenon of ableism
According to Anne McGuire, Western society has a long history of violence and discrimination against people with autism, and against people with disabilities in general:
"The dominant path we are on culturally in relation to autism, fighting it, hating it, waging a war against it, and working to eliminate it, [this path] leads us to believe that autism is not in itself a way of life, but that we are forced to live".
— Anne McGuire, Life without autism: a cultural logic of violence.
This deep-rooted ableism generates a phenomenon of discrimination. According to the child psychiatrist Roger Salbreux, "hatred of the disabled seems a normal feeling, an obvious one even [...] this hatred also seems completely understandable when it is felt by others, the able-bodied, those who meet and above all surround the disabled person, such as those responsible for caring for or accompanying them". A similar phenomenon of"sanism" generates a negative image of schizophrenic people, whose behaviors are described as "dangerous" and resemble those of autistic people.
According to Anne McGuire, the assimilation of autism as an undesirable "pathology" to be fought, defined by a series of symptoms, leads many people to think that it can be cured, making the autistic person "normal", but this idea is opposed to the feelings and wishes of most autistic people themselves. In this sense, fighting autism is fighting autistic people. This increases their exposure to acts of violence.
Consequences
Media exposure of a link between autism and violence is particularly damaging to public opinion on autism: according to Australian psychologist Neil Brewer and his team, "media exposure linking crime and autism spectrum disorder has fostered more negative attitudes towards ASD individuals, whereas positive educational messaging about autism spectrum disorder has had the opposite effect". According to Dr. Josef Schovanec in philosophy and sociology (EHESS), himself a person with autism, this fantasy of an association between autism and violence in turn justifies the mistreatment of people with autism:
"In sum, many of the descriptions of violence that we like to associate with autism are nothing more than sinister pictures of our own failures and deficiencies or, even worse, of the perverse desire to assign these to the people who are nevertheless victims of them".
— Josef Schovanec, Autism, the great survey
Two studies published in the 1990s determined that a significant rate of people with autism are held in high security hospitals. According to Katie Maras et al. this is more likely the result of public opinion associating them with a danger to society, rather than actual dangerous or violent behavior. Autistic people are often wrongly arrested by the police because of perceived strange behaviours (stereotypies) and are more vulnerable to police action than others. An article published in the Quebec daily Le Soleil in September 2017 points out that many autistic adults arrive in prison unaware of the seriousness of their acts, due to a lack of prior adapted support to teach them social skills, which leads to an over-judicialisation of this population, and this in all Western countries. Furthermore, a review of the scientific literature on the incarceration of people with autism, published in 2009, shows that there is no specific support system for autism in prison. People with autism who have been involved with the justice system most often have poor memories of it. Because autistic people have a particular level of empathy, their attitude may be misperceived as coldness and lack of remorse, leading to increased court sentences.
"[...] for adults with autism, there are often only what I call the four P's: parents, psychiatry, prison or heaven".
— Brigitte Harrison
Activism
Activists for the rights of autistic people oppose the media exposure of a relation between autism and violence, including Michelle Dawson and members of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, arguing that social discrimination is already a source of suffering for this population. These activists began to document acts of violence committed against people with autism in the 2000s, calling for a political response. The American film The Accountant (2016), which features an obsessive, empathy-less autistic accountant operating as a contract killer, has been called offensive to people with autism, in part because of the violence it exposes. Laurie Stephen, director of clinical services in Altadena, California, said "it's concerning that a movie features a character with autism who has guns and engages in this kind of aggression/violence".
Several researchers, including British psychiatrist David Allen (2008), recommend disseminating information about autism to justice system professionals in order to reduce the vulnerability of these individuals.
See also
Bibliography
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