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BBC Radio 4: The link between terrorism and autism.

PersonAnon

This quite measured piece (in which National Autistic Society staff are interviewed) was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 (I've mentioned this earlier in replies to another post).

It looks at the Prevent programme, and reasons why autistic people feature heavily amongst those who come to the attention of the authorities.

You have to listen to the whole thing, including the scene-setting in the first half where autism isn't mentioned.   

I'm personally fine with this, in the context of today, although I worry, slightly, that if we end up with an even more extreme Government, on the left or the right, at some point in the future, information like this would make all autistic people very vulnerable.  

I also worry, slightly, that the brevity required for a consumer radio programme is unhelpful (but unavoidable). 

On the principle of 'nothing about us, without us', they have interviewed the NAS, and someone helped by the Prevent programme, but the true nature of the spectrum is not explained to a consumer audience.  If you knew nothing about autism, you may come away with the misleading impression that such vulnerability covered everyone diagnosed with it. They do make the point that of the 700,000 or so people diagnosed in the UK, the vast majority would have nothing to do with terrorism. 

But people seldom listen to radio with their entire attention.  They are driving, or working, or looking after the kids, or on an exercise bike.  People with a full adult reading age and a good education will listen to this with only half an ear, and they'll take away soundbites, one of which may be "autism = terrorism".  

I'm not critical of the programme - it's part of a series investigating terrorism, and why people get involved, and it's good journalism. 

I'm not critical of NAS involvement, because their non-involvement would not prevent it being broadcast, and it's better that the programme goes out with their voice than without it. 

But I think this sort of thing places a huge pressure on autistic people, and particularly those whose autism does not affect language and their ability to marshal and present an argument, because we all need to be advocates for an intelligent approach to this stuff. 

The is not the fault of the journalism, to be clear; the journalism is merely reporting the facts, in this instance.  It’s not anyone’s ‘fault’.  It’s a difficult, harsh, truth that those of us on the spectrum have to deal with.

We all need to be well informed about this stuff, and to keep abreast of it, and if we don't, events which have a critical impact on our lives will, indeed, be decided without us.

Some of the key messages coming out from this (more resources needed for psychiatric and support services) are really good.  There's no inaccuracy, that I can see.  But I just feel that this is a high risk area for us, and we should keep careful tabs on it.

Here's the link.  Happy listening(!)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013swk 

(If the link doesn't work BBC i player / Terrorism and the Mind / The Mental Health Front Line / BBC Radio 4).  

Parents

  • I would have liked to have heard some hard numbers and percentages? Such as what proportion of convicted terrorists have diagnosable mental illnesses, and the same for autism, which is not a mental illness, of course.  I would imagine that the majority of terrorists do not have a diagnosable mental illness and that the majority are neurotypical. I do not think any of the people brought to trial for atrocities at the Nuremberg trials were clinically mentally ill, except possibly Rudolf Hess. 

  • in reply to Martin

    This is the down side of the internet, anyone anywhere can latch on to a cause from the comfort of their bedroom.  And if you are on your own and think differently, then it is an easy leap to take on some hateful ideology and believe it to be true when there is no one around to question your choice.

    As the program says, those with ASD go to these groups because the ideology they read is black and white and they don't do any further research.  If it ticks the right box, that is it and suddenly you are on the rocky road to hate.

  • in reply to Paul

    On the other hand, autistics are likely to be more individualistic and less open to pressure from others in the first place. Also, I would have thought that autistics tend towards logic and are less available for emotional manipulation. While it can be viewed that some autistic traits might make us more vulnerable, they could be balanced by traits that work in exactly the opposite direction.

  • in reply to Martin

    Interesting thought.  That plays into my earlier point that the spectrum is complex. If you draw simplistic conclusions from the fact that a disproportionate number of Prevent subjects prove to be autistic you risk a flawed analysis.  Intuitively, what you say sounds right.  Some people may, indeed, be more vulnerable, because of social isolation, strong feelings of injustice, lack of agency and other factors; but some may be very much less vulnerable, for the reasons you suggest. I suppose in my own case there's an element of being offended, that someone with only a slender grasp on the facts may think that I'm more supportive of terrorism because I'm autistic.

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  • in reply to Martin

    Interesting thought.  That plays into my earlier point that the spectrum is complex. If you draw simplistic conclusions from the fact that a disproportionate number of Prevent subjects prove to be autistic you risk a flawed analysis.  Intuitively, what you say sounds right.  Some people may, indeed, be more vulnerable, because of social isolation, strong feelings of injustice, lack of agency and other factors; but some may be very much less vulnerable, for the reasons you suggest. I suppose in my own case there's an element of being offended, that someone with only a slender grasp on the facts may think that I'm more supportive of terrorism because I'm autistic.

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