TW: Autistic teenagers found guilty of heinous crime

The thing about that particular case is it was seen as a test as to whether or not people who committed such crimes at such a young age could be rehabilitated. 

ANd  based on the tiny sample size of two people, they got the worst possible answer. yes they can about 50% of the time. if people like that had been seen as completely irredeemable many would’ve felt comfortable throwing away the key.

on the other hand if very young very extreme offenders were seem to be easy to rehabilitate some people would feel much more comfortable about the idea of a rehabilitative approach to punishing very young extreme offenders aimed at bringing them back into the community as soon as they have reformed.

The uncomfortable reality is it is possible for extreme offenders, extreme young offenders to be reformed. But it’s not easy and it’s far from guaranteed it will work.

Yes - glad you raised this and put it here Amerantin.  This "dude" is a serious "next level" genius....who has merely (arguably) channelled his genius into less than helpful activity........thus far !!!

I sincerely doubt that this "indefinite hospital order" is much other than the-forces-that-be endlessly trying to turn him to use his genius for (arguably) "good" purposes.

I'm sure Mi5 will be "all over" this soul for the rest of his life - and/or vice verser !

I did see a tv news report on the case, the reporter stated that one person is diagnosed ASD and the other shows ASD traits. The defence solicitors were trying to use it as a  defence, that is wrong, we all know right from wrong. I watch London news, most stabbing doesn’t even make the news unless it’s a particularly heinous crime, the amount of serious crimes committed by autistic people is very low, the media loves to ‘jump on’ something that is different.  

The James Bulger case was mentioned recently, one of the convicted has gone on to lead a normal life and never reoffended, the other is still in prison for reoffending by possessing child images. There normally will be one dominant person who eventually convinces the other who is often vulnerable themselves. The two in the current case will be put in different prisons, it will be interesting to see what psychiatrists find.

I have often remarked about the incompetence of many criminals before commenting on the crime.

I reckon I’d be much more careful and that may be in part because of my logical systematising approach to things.

Just as well I’m a good guy who is somewhat rule-bound

If they had more sense they would have used WhatsApp and deleted all the messages, just like Boris Johnson.

If they’d been more autistic, more detail oriented, more careful in their research, They’d have been less likely to get caught.

only an idiot conducts a criminal conspiracy via text message.

I think the two killers really are autistic because they are not very streetwise.  They left all these messages in cyberspace to incriminate themselves.

Society does not nurture intelligence, and talent, alas.

That is just because of the very tough gun laws in the UK. There are around 6x as many murders per head of population in the US as in the UK.

Just to let you know, action is being taken about how autistic people are portrayed and perceived as a result of this information in the media thanks to a brilliant autistic advocate. 

This advocate has written a formal complaint about this. If you want to know more about this you can search for Aucademy Social on Facebook.

Indeed, I just read the news article below about one of the kids who hacked GTA6 and is autistic.

If you read the article he has indeed committed crimes but I cannot believe they’ve sentenced  an 18 year old (who is clearly incredibly gifted) to an indefinite hospital order.

It’s outrageously over the top and a waste of talent

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67663128 

Ditto with politics, and social values; either extreme-Left, or extreme-Right.

We live in a society where the civil liberties of rival groups are pitted up against each other. Add Schools, and Unis, to the equation; you shall expect war.

That is why I no longer support Libertarianism. Not every lifestyle can be, peacefully, accommodated.

lets be clear being autistic doesn't make you a good person. It doesn't make you a bad person. Arguably it can make you less suseptable to social presure. But of course that works both ways because there is social presure to do the right thing and social pressure to do the wrong thing too. Autistic people tend to gravitate to extreems. It's not so suprising that sometimes this can also be extreems of good and evil.

Perhaps the individuals concerned found it advantageous to be conveniently unable to speak.

That reminds me: I was surprised to hear the BBC use the term 'selective mutism' the other night when I thought that 'situational mutism' was the more accepted and correct way to describe that now. Even though what those two did was horrific beyond words, the term itself (irrespective of who its being applied to and what they've done) shouldn't be, well, selectively rolled back to a more outmoded way of saying it. 

A said:

They may have ASD but there are obviously many other things deeply wrong with this pair

Exactly.

The number of individuals who premeditate murder is extremely small, across whole populations. Autism isn't an indicator, as far as I know.

I don't think it's out of the ordinary for those who report on criminals to also note that they're autistic or suffer from a disorder or whatever. Whether that's actually the right thing to do is another matter, but I'd agree that it's not necessary in this case. 

Having said that, most reasonable people won't use this isolated incident to form some kind of idea of what autistic people are like. I dare say most people don't even care about that particular detail, it's just a horrific crime full stop.

The pair of monsters that did this planned the attack in great detail and had a list of targets, not just the girl they actually murdered, and the attack itself was incredibly extreme and cruel.

They may have ASD but there are obviously many other things deeply wrong with this pair.

They should never be released from prison.

I agree with most of the comments here, I think it has nothing to do with autism (to some degree) maybe the attacker got triggered (haven't read the article) but to be fair, most autistic people, even those with less control, will not grab a knife and kill someone because they got frustrated.

Besides, your article says knife. In the UK? Resulted in death? Oh: What a SURPRISE.  

The UK is particularly known for the most murders involving knives, it did not need an autistic attacker to change that. A Stereotype but a fair true one.  

Autonomistic said:

Cases like this might damage public support for the NAS campaigns to release autistic people who are wrongly detained 

I completely understand what you mean.

I don’t think it’s helpful and I think it’s damaging that huge news outlets such as the BBC are allowed to identify criminals as autistic and this could lead to even more stigma surrounding our community.