I’ve seen Autism used as the reason that some people commit a crime. It might be a factor but in some of these I just don’t see the connection. It has been used in everything from cyber crimes to violent murders.
Autism doesn’t mean you don’t have morals and it especially doesn’t mean that one can’t care about others. On the contrary, most Autism people care deeply about other people.
https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/comments/1hafe7s/i_despise_when_people_use_autism_as_an_excuse_for/
Committing crimes doesn’t mean that someone is immoral or doesn’t care about someone. Most crimes happen in the heat of the moment, when someone is very emotionally dysregulated.
Getting deeply, irrationally and obsessively upset about things that might seem random and pointless is a very common trait associated with Autism. Crimes can happen when someone is in that state. Doesn’t mean that their surroundings didn’t fail them, but there also is a factor of personal responsibility.
I wouldn’t say that the simplified “Crime because of Autism” is a very nuanced way to see it, but I do believe that some traits of Autism could lead to a higher chance to commit some crimes 🤷 But honestly, most mental illnesses and neurodivergencies are like that.
Crimes do not need to be committed in anger and crimes can also be petty. Autism doesn’t need to be a direct cause of a crime, but it will probably be a huge contributing factor.
I can’t think of a specific case off top of my head, but I’ll describe a scenario that I know I have been through hundreds of times. This could also apply to anti-social behavior or what would seem to be a disregard for “social rules” in general. (Excuse me while I try to explain a state of mind without a good example.)
Sometimes, an action seems the most logical in the moment. If someone was to exclaim in excitement, “Some one pinch me, because I must be dreaming!”, my first reaction would be to take that statement literally and pinch the person. In my head, the action was justified, and I would expect a positive response when we know that likely would not be the case.
If we scale that up a hair, there have been cases, with me specifically, where an action that seems logical may absolutely not be appropriate or even legal. I absolutely have no intentions of breaking a law or causing trouble, but my brain immediately tries to solve a problem in the simplist way possible and I act on what I can only describe as reflex.
I think what I am trying to describe is very similar to my distinct lack of brain-to-mouth filter. If there is an obvious solution to something, but nobody actually says it out loud, I probably will. Unbeknownst to me, everyone already was thinking what I said, and it wasn’t socially acceptable to actually say it.
Thankfully, the legal system is setup to determine actual intent. Intending to commit a crime can be much more serious than commiting a crime by accident. Even the most serious of crimes are structured this way, ie: manslaughter vs murder; intentional or accidental.
I do believe that some traits of Autism could lead to a higher chance to commit some crimes
i’m not sure about that, though. iirc neurodivergent people (including autists) are more likely to be victims of violent crime than neurotypicals
Being more likely to be a victim and a perpetrator are not mutually exclusive.
I think the crimes most likely to be committed by autistic people are prohibition related or possibly violent crimes that happen in the heat of the moment.
On average though autistic people probably aren’t more likely to commit crimes.
do you have any numbers on that?
Yup!
And what isn’t an illegal act =/= what isn’t morally justified action.
I wake up each day already doing crime in certain countries.
Be Gay.
Do Crime.
Lots of crime! (ง ื▿ ื)ว
I think it can be a factor. However, you are ultimately responsible for your own actions. Autism doesn’t make you commit a crime. You are the one who perpetrates the offense.
Besides the reason given by @[email protected] which is a very real situation rarely considered by policy makers.
Sometimes laws don’t always align with morality. What morality eventually means is always subjective but many of us carry a deep desire for objective justice and are strongly opposed to going against their own moral code.
I generally don’t break laws because the ones i encounter tend to make sense, most traffic laws. But a law also does nothing to stop me if i see no sense in following it.
Autistic people tend to run counter to norms. Laws are basically just norms. This makes autistic people frequently both victims of discrimination and perpetrators of crimes. I also think autistic people tend to be deeply frustrated by society and this makes us lash out from time to time.
I don’t think that means that you can just claim “oh I have Autism” and be free of responsibility
I figure if a specialist determines they’re fit to stand trial then they’re on the hook for whatever they did.
