How many autistic children are murdered in the USA annually?

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If anyone has valid stats on this sourced from a reputable source could you please post them here. I am unable to find any.

When I google "murder of autistic children in the USA" Google brings up only links about AS people as potential perpetrators, not victims of violence. That speaks volumes in itself about the apparent indifference to the murder of AS people, and even worse, whitewashing in so many cases of their murderers.

Meanwhile I did find this ASAN commentary:
http://autisticadvocacy.org/wp-content/ ... mplete.pdf

Accurate stats need to be collected and if the authorities are too negligent to do this, then AS people may need to fill this important gap themselves. The USA stats on this could form a baseline for work on the same in other countries later on.

Here in New Zealand I will try to locate some stats - if they exist. However I doubt that Autism NZ, misnamed as it basically functions as a parent support outfit, would have concerned itself with this issue.

I just put in that exact line search that you put in and I got a lot of articles about people killing their Autistic kids

Could you post the results as a search result link here please Skibum. Thanks in advance.

(Perhaps Google shows different results to different people, or different countries?)

Not to steal Skibum's thunder, but here you go.

https://www.google.com/search?q=murder+ ... e&ie=UTF-8

Thank you. None of those, at a glance, seem to provide any stats as to the total number killed annually, which can't be determined easily from isolated reports. They all highlight some aspect of the bigger picture though in their cameo way.

Some stand out as real life examples of what ASAN described in the article I linked in the opening post here:

4
What is filicide?
In the past five years, over 550 people with disabilities have been murdered by their
parents, relatives or caregivers.
These acts are horrific enough on their own. But they exist in the context of a larger pattern:
1.
A parent kills their disabled child.
2.
The media portrays these murders as justifiable and inevitable due to the “burden” of having a
disabled person in the family.
3.
If the parent stands trial, they are given sympathy and comparatively lighter sentences, if they
are sentenced at all.
4.
The victim is disregarded, blamed for their own murder at the hands of the person they should
have been able to trust the most, and ultimately forgotten.
5.
The media sends a message that if you kill your disabled child, you will receive attention
and sympathy. The justice system sends a message that if you kill your disabled child, your
punishment will likely be minimal.
6.
Parents of kids with disabilities see these messages.
7.
A parent kills their disabled child.


What does the term “filicide” mean?
“Filicide” is the legal term for a parent murdering their child.

People who collude with murdering parents of AS children put other (perhaps all) autistic lives at greater risk. Organisations which claim to care about AS people and yet encourage "warrior parents" to "fight and make war" on autism put lives at risk. Warrior curebie parents put AS lives as risk.

It seems hypocritical to me that Autism Speaks claims to care about autistic families but has nothing empathetic to say (and never has) about murder of AS children. If that terrible money-grubbing organisation cared, they would have used a tiny amount of their mega millions to compile the stats on murdered AS children and have made it an urgent issue. They must really have a terrible problem with their theory of mind deficits there if they don't see the suffering and death of AS child victims as a problem. They Light it Up Blue and talk guff about awareness, but only the kind of awareness they want to see of course, nothing that would protect AS people from harm.

Please correct me if they have done so, and post annual stats if they have compiled them annually. I won't hold my breath.

Perhaps someone would like to write to their Chief Executive and ask where the stats are? Or lots of people?

I have a short answer. Too many. There are too many autistic children who are murdered annually. There are too many parents who see autism as a horrible disease. There are too many parents who don't respect the sanctity of all life from the womb to the tomb. I'm glad my mother didn't murder me.

Yes, too many. And so many of them die such really horrible deaths of great suffering, such as this week's news item:

http://wgntv.com/2018/06/06/mother-who- ... in-prison/

The 500 murders of disabled people that ASAN reported (read links in my OP here) did not separate out the AS victims, though I surmise we can assume the majority were probably AS victims.

We had a member who used to post regularly here (Celestia?) who kept a database/memorial.

Could that possibly have been Callista? Does that ring a bell? I can't find anything by a member named Celestia.

..

Yes!!:

callista
Blog: http://chaoticidealism.livejournal.com/
Articles by Callista
Day of Mourning 2015: Murder of the Disabled Q&A

By Callista on March 3, 2015
On March 1st, I joined an online vigil for the 2015 Day of Mourning. The point of the vigil is to commemorate people with disabilities who were murdered by their families and caretakers–killed by the people who were supposed to protect them. Filicide of the Disabled: What is it? “Filicide” is a subcategory of homicide. […]

Member Details
Member Since: 02/03/06
Number of Posts: 11395
Location: Ohio, USA

Website: http://autism-memorial.livejournal.com/


I used to really like her posts here. I think a Day of Mourning next year, when Awareness time comes around, would be worthwhile, at a prominent venue that is likely to get coverage in the USA. If they light up the White House blue, then maybe in front of that, with Black (for mourning) not blue banners and signs.

Found the memorial page itself - click the link below - thank you very much for your assistance with APOM

https://autismmemorial.wordpress.com/ - lists names on the homepage, and then you can click another tab here for personal accounts of victims including some from earlier this year in the USA https://autismmemorial.wordpress.com/tag/location-usa/

There are tabs on the RHS of that link for other countries.

I wonder how Callista compiled the reports (from which sources) and how many of the total her methods captured. Just in case she still has the same email I have sent her a PM about this thread.

Here is a Google list of links to articles about various Day of Mourning events that have been held in the past:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Day+of+ ... refox-b-ab

The problem with your question, it's really too narrow.

How far back are you going? Realistically, where I live, ASD was just starting to get diagnosed around 2004 for everyone. Before then it was nice, white fairly affluent families who had cash to burn, or were able to hook up with a big deal teaching university. Also Aspergers and Autism were not considered the same thing back then.

So finding any murder statistic regarding autism means 1) unless the person was level III (beyond obvious), would you also find out children who were level I /II ? Short of a big deal newspaper story, probably not. Remember autism was fluffed away with terms like PDD (which all kids in my area got BEFORE age 10 in hopes whatever the hell was wrong with them would go away.) Mild brain dysfunction. Mentally impaired. Emotionally impaired. ADHD was popular in early 2000s to get a 504 plan at school. PDD got Otherwise Healthy Impaired (useless). All those kids could be autistic but weren't correctly diagnosed.

You might have better luck searching for systematic child abuse leading to death/murder or special needs children abuse/murder. How many ASD kids elope/wander and the parent goes, "f**k it. I'm done." ? The parent doesn't drown the kid in the lake, but leaves doors unlocked. The police would report that as an accidential death.

I believe you have a good question, just that the statistics you seek maybe be really inaccurate.

Also you can have CP or Down Syndrome AND ASD. Those deaths in the papers would focus on the CP or DS, not so much ASD.

Widen the search and pick it apart.

Abuse rates are higher in those with disabilities and in elderlies. To me this makes sense because I know, special needs kids are no picnic. The abuse may be unintentional because some disabilities are invisible. Something for a normal child might not be abuse but it would be for the special needs child. A parent gets overwhelmed so they may neglect their child and it would be unintentional or the kid gets too big for the parent to care for so they don't care for them properly anymore like what do you do when you weigh 120 lbs and your child is weighing 170 lbs? How are you going to lift them and dress them and bath them? So there is the neglect. What if your kid has severe behavior so the only way you can keep them contained in your house is to lock them in their room so they can't harm you guys or get out of the house? Then there are also teachers and other adults who may abuse the child. Abuse is a vague word because it can range from subtle to severe and sometimes it's just the parent trying to keep their other kids and themselves safe because the kid is that violent, a Chucky. That seems more common in adoptive children though because of RAD or because the birth mom did drugs so it left the kid the inability to control themselves or not be able to understand right from wrong.

I think it's an overstatement to say to get rid of murder on autistic kids is to increase the consequences for it because that will not take care of the problem. We have to look at why it's happening and then go from there and the rate will drop. That is like trying to punish a special needs child for their behavior when in fact it's all due to anxiety so to take care of the behavior would be to treat the anxiety first, then the behavior would be gone. People are trying to take care of the homeless right now with hostile architecture but they are not looking at why people are homeless in the first place. To get rid of the homeless you would have to take care of what causes homeless people in the first place. The homeless shelters suck, rents increase so people get rented out, poverty because people lose their jobs and then they get evicted because they were not able to pay their rent, section 8 is a long waiting list and affordable housing. Lot of people never look at the big picture for the cause of things so they try and take care of the issue than looking at the cause and it never works. This is something my mom taught me, she didn't punish me for my behavior but looked at why I was doing it and what caused it because punishing me for it wouldn't have worked.


And of course there are people out there that just abuse because they are cruel people and they deserve a far worse punishment than the others who were just overwhelmed and trying their best but they don't go out of their way to starve and beat that child or play games with them and give them ridiculous chores (eg. cutting the grass with scissors, or they pick up something and the caregiver just messes it up again and tells them to do it over, or making them sweep the driveway with a paintbrush) and excluding them from the family making them the scapegoat. That is not an overwhelmed parent there. And yes parents who have killed their disabled children out of cold blood have gotten a heavy sentence, life in prison or death.

Christie Scott got capital punishment for murdering her 6 year old autistic boy for insurance.

Jessica Schwarz was given a life sentence for the murder of her 10 year old step son and he was obviously special needs though undiagnosed. One babysitter suspected he had ADHD and he also had fetal alcohol. http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1995-0 ... cal-father There is also a book on that case called No One Can Hurt Him No More.

Judy Buenoano was given a life sentence for the murder of her disabled son for insurance. She also abused him too and made him the scapegoat of the family while she treated her other two children well. He was obviously special needs because he was diagnosed as being globally developmental delayed and then he was just slow and had behavior and was in foster care but his IQ was tested at 91 when he was in the navy. He could have been autistic or maybe not but it was the 1960's and the 1970's. But then she decided to kill him for insurance money like she had with her husband in the past and common law husband and then attempted to kill her fiance for insurance.

Lisa Coleman was sentenced to death and executed for the murder of her girlfriend's son. He was also special needs, born premature and also had behavior.

Michelle Sue Tharp also sentenced to death for the murder of her seven year old girl who was also special needs. Also born premature and had numerous ailments, including genetic abnormalities and problems with her breathing, blood, glands, nervous system and gastrointestinal tract.




So special needs children do get justice if the murder is done out of cold blood. It's not exclusive to autism. I am sure there have been more cases where the parent just got a life sentence or capital punishment. I think you just have to look for them to find these cases. And I just noticed all these cases I mentioned were all women. Maybe because they are the primary caregivers while the dad is gone or out working.

I share ASAN's viewpoint on the moral unjustifiability of murdering children no matter how difficult they are.

Tawaki, I think establishing baselines is important as a first step. Research is divided into basic and applied. I would be quite satisfied with this project if just the first base was achieved - how many are murdered per capita per year the USA. If there are accurate basic stats already, where are they? CDC keeps stats on the incidence of AS - that's not broken down by type - and nor should the baseline murder stats be, in my view; they are an index measure and can be monitored for increase or decrease thereafter, as well as provide a resource for applied researchers to use (who look at the differences in sample and details etc).

Tawaki, I think your suggestion could be very useful for an applied research project, perhaps for a master's thesis student who could look at this from various perspectives, eg sociological, or a public health project, or disability studies etc.