To really dispel the myth of the criminal autistic, I believe you'd nee only look at statistics.
Take a population with a higher than average number of Aspies, I believe my very own hometown of Portland Oregon would qualify, and look at the criminal statistics of the city.
What's the ratio of criminals to non-criminals in the non-aspies vs the ratio in aspies. I'd be willing to bet it's the same. And in that case, it would be all but proof that there's no link between the two.
I think part of the problem lies in the constant colloquial confusion of "asocial" and "antisocial". The former is what most people actually mean when they call us the latter, and unfortunately, the latter carries connotations of one's being a sociopath, of not understanding ethical boundaries (which are NOT the same as social boundaries like the distance between people in conversation), and of completely not caring about the effects of one's actions on others.
I don't know many morally bankrupt aspies, but I'm willing to bet that the percentage of us who are like that is pretty similar to the percentage of the NT population who are. It's just that no one's ever done a study on that of which I'm aware.
I am frequently thought of as a shoplifter, because I walk around a lot and wear a jacket that has belonged to me for many years. All of which goes against what someone actually shoplifting would do.
It's annoying and stupid.
I've been falsely accused at least once
I was accused of travelling illeglly and fined after genuinely losing the return slip of my train ticket without realising - the train conducter himself said it'd probably be alright as he could see the outgoing slip was valid, and was issued as a double ticket, but at the other end was a gate guard who refused to let me leave until I'd "paid for my ticket, and the fine", when I explained the conductor had said it should be ok and I have a plane to catch, he summoned two police officers to stand behind me to grab me if I tried leave for the plane's transfer coach and forced me to give him all my travel money pretty much which left me without any money in a foreign country. Then, when I turned to leave he shouted "I hope you arn't gonna try stowaway on the plane, the air marshalls shoot your type" and the two police officers were sniggering about it.
I've also been pulled over and searched at airports twice for "looking suspicious", one time they even accused me of trying smuggle an offensive weapon because my wallet has a chain on it (to attach it to my belt), and I always seem to attract the attention of security guards at shops =/
Ironiclly, I don't think you'll find many people who're more law abiding, or has more respect for the security services than me (They're just people doing their job; though that gate guard certainly lowered their rep in my eyes)
Ever notice how if someone who has a mental health problem murders someone, everyone worries that everyone with the same diagnosis is a murderer.
Yet when an NT murders someone, people don't worry that any normal person might turn around and murder them too?
Hmm... So being subjected to prejudice is a risk factor for committing assault? Makes sense to me
Box 5 Characteristic features of Asperger syndrome that predispose to criminal offending
An innate lack of concern for the outcome can result in, for example, an assault that is disproportionately intense and damaging. Individuals often lack insight and deny responsibility, blaming someone else; this may be part of an inability to see their inappropriate behaviour as others see it.
An innate lack of awareness of the outcome that allows individuals to embark on actions with unforeseen consequences; for example, fire-setting may result in a building’s destruction, and assault in death.
Impulsivity, sometimes violent, can be a component of comorbid ADHD or of anxiety turning into panic.
Social naïvety and the misinterpretation of relationships can leave the individual open to exploitation as a stooge. Their limited emotional knowledge can lead to a childish approach to adult situations and relationships, resulting, for example, in the mistaking of social attraction or friendship for love.
Misinterpreting rules, particularly social ones, individuals find themselves unwittingly embroiled in offences such as date rape.
Difficulty in judging the age of others can lead the person into illegal relationships and acts such as sexual advances to somebody under age.
Overriding obsessions can lead to offences such as stalking or compulsive theft. Admonition can increase anxiety and consequently a ruminative thinking of the unthinkable that increases the likelihood of action.
In formal interviews, misjudging relationships and consequences can permit an incautious frankness and the disclosure of private fantasies which, although no more lurid than any adolescent’s, are best not revealed.
Lacking motivation to change, individuals may remain stuck in a risky pattern of behaviour.
http://apt.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/10/5/341
This is what I originally posted in this thread. It seems to have been cut out.
But, Ryuujin, NT murderers are *normal* murderers, and somehow they're not seen to be as bad as *weird* murderers. One is, however, just as dead whether killed by an normal murderer or a weird murderer.
The articles in the newspapers will differ a lot depending on which kind of murderer one is. The public perception might get a case of honest self-defense turned into a case of murder in the so-called "court of public opinion" (the popular media).
This relates to something I remember from years ago.
In 1996 a man named Martin Bryant killed 32 people in a day in Port Arthur, Tasmania, and injured many others. People know this part.
Not many people know this part. After his arrest, he was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.
I remember this because at the time I knew about Asperger's Syndrome and there was a lot of stuff in the paper about how "weird" he was since school and how people with AS have no empathy, blah, blah, blah....
And I remember thinking, Hang on. The news is making out like all people with AS are like this guy. And yet, there was no-one around to point out that aspies are not all sociopaths.
Little point to think of, we humans have a tendency to label everything. So if an autie or aspie commits a crime, his/her 'distinction' is often mentioned. Works the same as with blacks, and latino's. Alas this tendency also leads to a biased point of view amongst the common mass.
I know what you are saying.
You mean if somebody with autism commits suicide other people will blame it on the autism, but if somebody without autism commits suicide other people will blame it on depression.
I was reading in Tony Attwood's book recently, and his comment on the crime issue was that there was no statistical difference in likelyhood to commit crime between AS and NT. BUT, AS crimes tend to be a little on the wierd side, such as stealing a rather useless or unsellable object to add to their collection which they obsess about. Or committing a violent act in response to the bullying of immature job associates who can't handle people being different. Porn and glorified irresponsible sexual behaviour in the media also tend to have a more negative influence on people with AS than on others, but more often the problem they have is that they are soo platonic towards members of the opposite sex that they are accused of homosexuality.
And also there is an (understandable) need for people to look for reasons in the world, especially when one person commits a crime against another. And also an (understandable) tendency to blame that crime on minority traits because people do not want to believe that criminals are JUST LIKE THEM.
There is a certain (although perverse) comfort in the belief that "I wouldn't do that, because that person is X and I am Y." And people do tend to see people (including themselves) as to how they differ from the norm.
Example, I am a female, Caucasian (Anglo-Celtic), aspie -- and Australian although I am living in New Zealand. I am much more inclined to identify as aspie, rather than Caucasian. But in Japan my race was more of an issue, because I was in the minority.
Similarly, NTs do not IDENTIFY as NTs, ne?
At its most basic level, it's a simple result of a need to identify others. Because if people identified others first through their similarities, it would be almost as difficult as if the world was full of identical siblings. Evolution. Makes sense?
I suppose all I'm saying is, this tendency doesn't really make people arseholes, because it is not beyond understanding. It's a problem when this leads to a refusal to change with education.
"Anglo-Celtic." Dang! You, too? Some people call it "Scots-Irish", which is not quite the same, but close enough. We made lots of trouble in Britain, so they shipped us to America, where we made so much trouble (1776 and all that) that they had to ship people like us to Oz, instead.
"Anglo-Celtic." Dang! You, too? Some people call it "Scots-Irish", which is not quite the same, but close enough. We made lots of trouble in Britain, so they shipped us to America, where we made so much trouble (1776 and all that) that they had to ship people like us to Oz, instead.
Yeah. I use the term as a kind of part-this, part-that, sort of Britannic mongrel something-or-other. (With ancestors from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and pretty much nowhere else.) Which, yeah, isn't quite the same as "Scots-Irish".
What did they call countries like ours? A melting pot?