Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Criminal Justice System
Guide to Understanding Suspects, Defendants and offenders with Autism
- 1/e
- London Routledge 2022
- xii,289p. 25 cm
Preface
Chapter 1: What is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)?
Chapter 2: ASD and Offending Behaviour: Why It Is Important to Recognise How ASD Symptomology Can Provide the Context of Vulnerability for Engaging in Offending and Important Considerations When Interviewed by Police and Other Criminal Justice Professionals
Chapter 3: Risk Assessment: ASD and Issues with Current Standardised Risk Assessment Chapter 4: Prevalence of ASD in Forensic Settings
Chapter 5: Psychiatric Co-morbidity in ASD
Chapter 6: ASD in the Courtroom: Why It Is Important to Recognise This Disorder in Defendants
Chapter 7: ASD and Arson
Chapter 8: ASD and Sexual Offences (Offline and Online)
Chapter 9: ASD and Cybercrime
Chapter 10: ASD and Violent Offending
Chapter 11: ASD and Radicalisation and Extremism
Chapter 12: ASD and Extreme Violence
Chapter 13: ASD and Stalking
Chapter 14: ASD in the Prison Environment
Chapter 15: Conclusions and Recommendations
Recommended Further Reading
This book focuses on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the criminal justice system. Rather than being the perpetrators of offending behaviour, individuals with ASD are more likely to be the victims of crime. However, there is nevertheless a small subset of individuals with ASD who do offend, and this book provides an in-depth understanding of how certain features of ASD may provide the context of vulnerability to engaging in a number of types of offending behaviours.
Chapters focus on arson or fire-setting; cybercrime (e.g., hacking); online sexual offending such as the viewing of indecent child imagery; offline sexual offending; violent crime; stalking; terroristic behaviour (including radicalisation and extremism); bestiality or zoophilia; and also extreme violence such as mass shooting and serial homicide. This book also outlines the ways in which a defendant with ASD may present in court and how they may exhibit behaviour which could be misinterpreted and perceived negatively, leading to an unfair trial. Lastly, it discusses the need to identify the impact that ASD can have on the capacity to form the requisite criminal intent and offers appropriate court adaptions to support individuals with ASD during court proceedings.
This book is ideal for criminal defence lawyers and practitioners in psychology, psychiatry, and social work as well as policy makers and reformers.