BBC reporting of autism (was “Southport”)

I have been meaning to write to the BBC ever since I heard this - I guess we could all complain and see if it is upheld although probably a bit late now. I did post in an autistic community on another platform and just got one annoying person accuse me and others of why we thought no autistic people would ever commit awful crimes and of course you get some bad apples *sigh*  I never said that. They went on to say that genocide might be a special interest which I thought was a pretty appalling response too. I just thought that the BBC announcing as the main headline that the killer had ASD was irrelevant and inflammatory (same as the fact that he was born in Rwanda). 

I guess that the violence of the riots has taken over the headlines and hence my not getting round to writing to the BBC.

Looking at the scholarship on autism and criminality I found this interesting passage: "... mentally ill offenders with ASD, recruited in penitentiary institutions in the Netherlands, and found very high levels of comorbidity, with 79% meeting criteria for at least one other clinical disorder. Particularly SUDs [substance abuse disorders], schizophrenia and neurodevelopmental disorders other than ASD were common in this group. They also reported strikingly low prevalences of anxiety disorders (1%) and depressive disorders (3%), while very high rates of these disorders have been found in ASD groups outside the forensic setting."

This suggests two things, that a very high proportion of autistic offenders have comorbid mental conditions and/or drug abuse problems, and that a small sub-group of autistics are over-represented, i.e. autistics who do not exhibit anxiety and/or depression (about 90% of autistic adults report significant levels of anxiety).

The paper I took the passage from can be seen here: www.frontiersin.org/.../full

This also suggests that reporters are not serving the community very well by making uncritical comments about the ASD status of offenders when psychiatric scholarship is definitely pointing to mental health and substance abuse problems having far more relevance for autistic criminality than ASD does. Of course, these factors have an equally great impact on the criminality levels within the allistic population as a whole, but no reporter ever comments about a drug-addicted offender being 'allistic'!

From another paper: "We empirically examined the risk factors for criminal behaviour in individuals with HFASD [high functioning ASD]. 15 types of childhood adversities (CAs) were examined between the criminal group and the control group. The age of initial HFASD diagnosis, neglect and physical abuse were significantly related to presence of criminal behaviour. This result matched the previous report on general population."

So another factor influencing autistic criminality is childhood abuse, and again it has the same effect as childhood abuse has on allistic people. See here: www.sciencedirect.com/.../S1750946711002054

I think there is a level of it thats about feeling marginalised, but it's not that understandable. What surprises me is the numbers of older people 40+ that seem to be rioting and fronting up to the police. It's mostly white men too, very few women from I can see of the TV footage, is this an excuse for make violence to spill over into the streets?

What's disturbing is the number of people,including some from the media, whitewashing the behaviour of such thugs as an 'understandable' reaction to feeling  marginalised.

This reporting in the media completely demonises our entire autistic community when we already experience huge amounts of prejudice and marginalisation anyway, I don’t how to stop reporting like this without becoming heavily involved in advocacy which could be incredibly draining and upsetting.

Just thinking there are numerous autistic led organisations such as Autistic Inclusive Meets that focus a lot of their efforts on campaigning about how our community is portrayed in the media. Currently this organisation I mention is heavily involved in the case of Megan Docherty so may not be able to help but it’s worth asking. What do you think about this idea?

Also another idea might be to start a petition about how our autistic community is portrayed by news outlets.

Thanks for raising this point, it has been widely discussed on other autistic led social media platforms.

Hopefully, other news will soon replace this story or current focus but this could have long lasting effects on how safe we feel (including myself) disclosing our autistic identity and ultimately demonstrating pride in our neurotype, not to mention a potential increase in hate crimes.

It makes me so angry and frustrated because if the media reported about any other marginalised identity such as being gay for example there would be outrage not just from queer communities but the public in general but apparently for some reason it’s ok to weaponise autistic identities.

It all feels to orchestrated to be just a reaction to the terrible murders in Southport, I know that with social media things can get about quickly, but I still wonder if something wasn't being planned anyway?

I think the far right want this sort of social unrest, but it's good to see ordinary people out defending their comunities as peacefully as they can and saying that the far right dosen't represent them.

There's talk of much of it being stirred up by foreign state actors, I think there are one or two in this country that stir things up too.

What does seem different to these protests is the amount of support the police seem to be getting from ordinary people, it seems more usual for riots and unrest like this to be aimed at the police. But then often these things start because of deaths in custody or something similar.

Looks like we've got more of them coming over the weekend.

This reporting is so worrying especially when you think about 'thin-slicing' theory, and how this apparently impacts the way most people make judgments. 

Your last paragraph is my concern with all the riots at the moment potentially killing people, apart from the effect of the damage caused to people's property. It is sad that these people are unable to see the effect they are having..

Kate Kestrel said:

Re. The rioting - I noticed a lot of them were laughing and basically enjoying all the adrenaline and excitement they were experiencing - they certainly weren’t doing it out of some serious political motivation. I think they are using the deaths of those poor little girls in Southport as an excuse to create mayhem and have ‘fun’

I fully agree, I also think it's related to the hot weather and frustrated people are just letting off steam.

Ultimately we are all human beings and we are all influenced by the various experiences we have growing up in whatever society/culture we happen to grow up in etc etc etc. Pretty much ever aspect of our lives - both personally and due to the wider society we live in - influences our thinking and behaviour. I don’t like the ‘othering’ of criminals - calling them ‘monsters’ or ‘evil’ etc - I think we need to try to understand how these things develop so that we can work to prevent them happening in the future. Understanding can only help. 

Re. The rioting - I noticed a lot of them were laughing and basically enjoying all the adrenaline and excitement they were experiencing - they certainly weren’t doing it out of some serious political motivation. I think they are using the deaths of those poor little girls in Southport as an excuse to create mayhem and have ‘fun’ - which is truly despicable of them. Throwing bricks around like that they could easily end up killing someone. I was in a demonstration many years ago in London against the poll tax (that turned into a riot really) and someone through a rock at a policeman and it nearly hit me - and at that point I realised that demonstrations can be more dangerous than you bargain for. 

its also not proportional, because we never had a lasting demographic change effect on neither india or africa, we left it same demographic as we found it, and economically and health wise we left it better.

His autistic status is as relevant to his crime as him being male, black or of Rwandan heritage. Thomas Hamilton, the Dunblane mass murderer, was male, but did not have an autism diagnosis, was not black, or of Rwandan ancestry.

I meant in this case, although I see that wasn't clear re-reading my post. 

I'm sure they have reported on MH conditions elsewhere. 

That doesn't preclude them from linking ASD with violent crime though, which feeds negative public perception. 

Actually the BBC have done a lot of reporting on abuse of people with mental health problems, they've investigated the deaths of people with ASD in "care homes" and have sent in undercover reporters.

There was s similar news story  last year if you recall. With one of the lads who murdered Brianna Ghey being Autistic.  People were saying on here it would turn the world against Autistic folk,  but it did not.

Some people also seemed to be shocked that an autist would be capable of such a thing. They must think all autistic people are angels rather than humans.  But I don't think that.  I recognise that Autists are humans and thus capable of doing all the bad things that an NT might do.

TheCatWoman said:

we know that autism dosen't make you violent, but mental health issues can

I wonder if the BBC reports on any MH conditions - I expect not. The media inevitably looks to 'other' violent criminals, to emphasize the point that they're abnormal - apparently a diagnosis of ASD is sufficient for the BBC. 

It's not unprecedented either. 

Yes - I think most people do know this. I’m not worried about this news story - myself and both my children are autistic and I think most people realise that being autistic doesn’t mean your going to commit crime!

There is undoubtedly a  lack of support and this can damage our mental health. My son spent his whole school life with Selective Mutism (in addition to being autistic and having ocd) and he NEVER got really good quality expert support - even though did everything we could to get this in place for him. He’s such a gentle soul but I have often wondered how he didn’t get more anger for how he was treated by the system. I can quite understand why some people ‘crack’ At times because the iampact of years of struggle can take a terrible toll on our mental health. 
I don’t know about the young man who committed his appalling crime - but who knows? It may have been a factor. Or might not, 

Damn... that's just what we need. Another...aww whatever

BTW the first time I saw Thomas Crooks...i was like, autist, that guy is autistic. I think he might have just had schizophrenia through now