Higher Autistic Traits Among Criminals, But No Link to Psychopathy: Findings from a High-Security Prison in Portugal

Loureiro, Diana; Machado, A.; Silva, T.; Veigas, Tânia; Ramalheira, Carlos; Cerejeira, Joaquim

doi:10.1007/s10803-018-3576-z

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…As highlighted by Loureiro et al (2018), there are studies which have indicated that there is an over-representation of individuals with ASD across various forensic settings (including in the criminal justice system [CJS]) (Scragg and Shah, 1994; Bates, 2016; Fazio et al , 2012; Ashworth, 2016). The exact prevalence of ASD in prisons is unknown (Robinson et al , 2012).…”

Section: Prevalence Of Asd In the Criminal Justice Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been suggested that individuals with ASD may be caught and convicted more frequently for their offending behaviour which may be a potential explanation for the higher prevalence of individuals in the CJS compared to the prevalence in community samples (Woodbury-Smith and Dein, 2014; Loureiro et al , 2018).…”

Section: Prevalence Of Asd In the Criminal Justice Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Cardboard gangsters”, “in crowd” and “no control”: a case study of autism spectrum disorder in the prison environment

Allely

Wood

2022

JIDOB

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to add to the relatively limited existing literature exploring the experience of individuals with autism spectrum disorder in the prison environment. Prisoners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) need to be identified in order that they are given the necessary and appropriate support and safeguards. It is increasingly recognised that, for individuals with ASD, prison can be more challenging. This can be due to ASD traits which can make problems occur in everyday life. Some of these ASD traits include: obsessions, compulsions and difficulties in communicating with others. There is increasing recognition that adults with ASD who are in prison are more vulnerable to bullying, social isolation, sexual victimisation and exploitation confrontations with other prisoners. Given this, more research is warranted in this area highlighting the specific needs and challenges of individuals with ASD in the prison. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a case study of Mr C.T., a British Citizen, who is currently serving a life sentence (discretionary). Mr C.T. has spent more than 10 years in prison. At the time of completing the questionnaire for the present study, Mr C.T. was 51 years of age. He pled guilty to charges of lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour; making an indecent photograph contrary to s52(1)(a) of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982; and possession of indecent photographs contrary to s52(A)(1) of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. Mr C.T. was convicted of Lewd, Indecent and Libidinous Practices and Behaviour and 2 x Civic Government (Scotland) Act, Section 52 (1) (a) and was sentenced to Life Imprisonment with a punishment part of 6 years. Findings The case study discussed in this paper clearly raises a number of issues and concerns that urgently need attention in our criminal justice systems. Originality/value There is relatively little research exploring the experiences and challenges faced by individuals with ASD. This paper will add to the existing body of research in this limited field.

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Section: Prevalence Of Asd In the Criminal Justice Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Prevalence Of Asd In the Criminal Justice Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Cardboard gangsters”, “in crowd” and “no control”: a case study of autism spectrum disorder in the prison environment

Allely

Wood

2022

JIDOB

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“…De un modo u otro, los rasgos autistas se han constituido como un objeto de estudio en sí mismo, a tal punto que durante los últimos quince años se produjo un marcado incremento de publicaciones que buscan vincular la presencia de rasgos autistas con diversas condiciones o características particulares de individuos agrupados bajo diferentes criterios relacionados a la edad, género, demografía, presencia de patologías físicas o mentales previas, entre otros. Así, hay investigaciones que afirman la presencia elevada de rasgos autistas entre personas que han intentado cometer suicidio (9) , entre mujeres con anorexia nerviosa (10) , entre criminales de una prisión de máxima seguridad en Portugal (11) , entre personas en situación de indigencia (28) , entre nietas de abuelas maternas fumadoras (29) , entre hombres con desorden de abuso de sustancias (30) , entre personas transgénero y de género diverso (31) , entre adultos jóvenes que nacieron en un parto extremadamente prematuro (32) , y un largo etcétera.…”

Section: Autismo Y Rasgos Autistasunclassified

“…En este contexto, cada vez es más frecuente la publicación de artículos del ámbito de las neurociencias que reportan la manifestación de rasgos autistas en diversas poblaciones, diferenciadas por criterios vinculados a la edad, género, demografía, presencia de patologías físicas o mentales previas, entre otros. Para ejemplificar brevemente, hay investigaciones que resaltan la presencia de niveles elevados de rasgos autistas entre personas que han intentado cometer suicidio (9) , entre mujeres con anorexia nerviosa (10) , entre criminales de una prisión de máxima seguridad (11) , etc. La base común de estos trabajos radica en considerar que los rasgos autistas se distribuyen entre la población general (12) , lo cual habilita evaluarlos y hallarlos en grupos de personas no autistas, con las más variadas características.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Análisis filosófico sobre la concepción neurocientífica de los rasgos autistas: aportes desde el normativismo vital de Georges Canguilhem

Castañares

Bagatolli

Folguera

2021

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A partir de la obra Lo normal y lo patológico de Georges Canguilhem, publicada en 1943, se explora cómo las neurociencias definen y legitiman, en la actualidad, la existencia de los rasgos autistas como expresión subclínica de autismo. La hipótesis general del presente trabajo es que en la bibliografía especializada de este ámbito parecen consolidarse diferentes supuestos asumidos en el marco de una perspectiva naturalista de la salud. Tales supuestos refieren a que los comportamientos deben ser explicados estrictamente en términos biológicos, que existe un parámetro de normalidad de carácter objetivo y estadístico, y que las conductas de los individuos pueden ser analizadas separadamente del contexto. Retomando algunos aspectos de la propuesta de Canguilhem sobre salud, normalidad y normatividad, se analiza de qué manera las neurociencias otorgan una cualidad cuasi-patológica a una noción descriptiva como la de rasgos autistas. A nuestro entender, este proceso involucra la asunción apriorística y acrítica de supuestos que impiden poner en discusión aspectos elementales asociados a la naturaleza del autismo y que conducen a patologizar la diferencia entre personas.

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“…Despite these shared features, the behavioral phenotypes in psychopathy and ASD also differ in important ways. First, although ASD might be underdiagnosed in forensic settings ( Loureiro et al. 2018 ), the available data show that antisocial behavior is more common in psychopathy than in ASD.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aberrant motor contagion of emotions in psychopathy and high-functioning autism

et al. 2022

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Psychopathy and autism are both associated with aberrant social skills and empathy, yet only psychopaths are markedly antisocial and violent. Here, we compared the functional neural alterations underlying these two groups that both have aberrant empathetic abilities but distinct behavioral phenotypes. We studied 19 incarcerated male offenders with high psychopathic traits, 20 males with high-functioning autism, and 19 age-matched healthy controls. All groups underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while they viewed dynamic happy, angry, and disgusted faces or listened to laughter and crying sounds. Psychopathy was associated with reduced somatomotor responses to almost all expressions, while participants with autism demonstrated less marked and emotion-specific alterations in the somatomotor area. These data suggest that psychopathy and autism involve both common and distinct functional alterations in the brain networks involved in the socioemotional processing. The alterations are more profound in psychopathy, possibly reflecting the more severely disturbed socioemotional brain networks in this population.

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Higher Autistic Traits Among Criminals, But No Link to Psychopathy: Findings from a High-Security Prison in Portugal

Cited by 12 publications

References 46 publications

“Cardboard gangsters”, “in crowd” and “no control”: a case study of autism spectrum disorder in the prison environment

“Cardboard gangsters”, “in crowd” and “no control”: a case study of autism spectrum disorder in the prison environment

Análisis filosófico sobre la concepción neurocientífica de los rasgos autistas: aportes desde el normativismo vital de Georges Canguilhem

Aberrant motor contagion of emotions in psychopathy and high-functioning autism

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