BBC reporting of autism (was “Southport”)

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

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