Published on 12, July, 2020
Trigger warning: knife crime and murder
I had not been following too closely the news reports about the tragic murder of Brianna Ghey. However on the news last night it stated that both of the accused are autistic and that has shocked me. This online news report states the the boy "has been diagnosed with selective mutism and autism spectrum disorder" and the girl "has traits of autism and adhd". They were described as 'high functioning' in court
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-67727331
I find it impossible to comprehend how any autistic person could be capable of such a premeditated heinous crime and then to lie about it afterwards.
The stigma against autistic people persists and news reports like this are not going to help with the negative perceptions some people continue to have. Sadly there are some people who believe that autistic people are in some way dangerous and should be locked away in institutions. Cases like this might damage public support for the NAS campaigns to release autistic people who are wrongly detained
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.
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.