Autism spectrum disorder and violence: Threat assessment issues.

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has a lengthy history in criminal forensic mental health but is rarely discussed in the contemporary threat assessment literature as a cause of or contributor to targeted violence. In the popular media, ASD is sometimes associated with incidents of mass murder, influencing public impressions, but begging the question of what relationship ASD may genuinely have with violence potential. Relevant research on ASD and violence is reviewed along with common methodological issues. Assessment challenges and potential case management missteps are discussed, such as distinguishing ASD from psychosis and psychopathy, and the crucial role of comorbid conditions in mediating or amplifying violence. Five cases are presented, exemplifying these issues and a range of ASD-related phenomena: an ASD college student false positive for violence, a false claim of ASD in a psychopathic defendant, a mass murder, a thwarted attack, and a rape and homicide by a psychopath paired with an ASD individual. A specific focus is the distinction between psychopathic and ASD-related motives and behaviors, and some promising research in this area. ASD characteristics of deficits in theory of mind, emotional regulation, and moral reasoning are discussed as they may contribute to either impulsive or predatory violence. Guidelines are offered for conducting ASD-related violence risk assessments, and an overview of case management strategies and issues.

The Swedish School Attack in Trollhättan

“…The risk of violence among those with autism spectrum disorder is controversial but also important. Although there is no simple relationship between ASD and violence, there are three deficits in ASD that may contribute to violent criminal behavior: Theory of mind deficits, in which individuals with ASD may become confused, especially under stress, and not be able to process social information, including the impact of their actions on others; emotional dysregulation in which the ASD individual demonstrates poor impulse control, aggression, and negative peer interactions; and deficits in moral reasoning , a social‐cognitive process by which one judges an action to be worthy of praise or blame . Comorbid psychiatric conditions are also present when ASD subjects commit serious crimes, as occurred in the Pettersson case .…”

Space between concern and crime

“…The existence of such “warning behaviors” was proposed by the Fixated Research Group in a series of studies primarily regarding approaches and communications to the British Royal Family (James et al., , , ; Meloy, Hoffmann, Guldimann, & James, ; Mullen et al., ). Relying on slightly different conceptualizations, these patterns of behavior indicating an increasing threat have also been described as “signaling the attack” (Vossekuil et al., ), “high‐risk indicators” (Calhoun & Weston, ), and “red flag indicators” (White, Meloy, Mohandie, & Kienlen, ).…”

Representación del TEA en los medios de comunicación: análisis de un periódico generalista

“…El análisis de estos datos nos lleva a pensar que, aunque el tratamiento que se da al TEA contempla también una imagen positiva, son más numerosos los artículos en que se destacan los aspectos negativos. Este resultado es semejante al que se ha obtenido en otros estudios similares a este realizados a nivel internacional (Bie y Tang, 2015;Jones y Harwood, 2009), en los que se han destacado aspectos negativos del TEA, como la carga familiar que supone el diagnóstico de este trastorno; las dificultades que encuentran las personas con TEA para participar en la sociedad mediante el trabajo o el ocio, o incluso la asociación de TEA y violencia (Brewer et al, 2017;White et al, 2017).…”

“…Por tanto, es interesante analizar cómo es la imagen que los medios de comunicación proyectan a sus consumidores sobre el TEA, ya que a partir de esta proyección se conforman algunas cuestiones tan relevantes en el terreno de la inclusión como la difusión de una información rigurosa y carente de sesgos sobre el propio diagnóstico y los mecanismos de intervención (Belcher y Maich, 2014;Lanovaz, Dufour y Shah, 2015). En definitiva, son un elemento a partir del cual se conforman buena parte de las actitudes que los ciudadanos construyen sobre el TEA (Brewer, Zoanetti y Young, 2017;White, Meloy, Mohandie y Kienlen, 2017).…”

“…UU. (Brewer et al, 2017;White et al, 2017). Este análisis ha evidenciado que el supuesto vínculo entre autismo y violencia puede influir en la creación de actitudes de miedo o rechazo hacia las personas con TEA, cuando en realidad este binomio TEA-violencia carece de cualquier tipo de justificación científica rigurosa.…”