Do low-functioning autistic individuals commit More crimes?

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Do low-functioning autistic individuals commit More crimes than high-funtioning autistic individuals do?

No.

Do autistic individuals commit crimes in general?

Probably as rarely as nonautistic people.

What sort of crime could a low functioning autistic possibly commit?

I've rarely ever heard on the news that a culprit in any type of crime is on the spectrum. Only times I could think of was the Sandy Hook shooter and this recent homicide hunter episode.

Autistics tend to be victims of crimes. But rarely perpetrators of crimes.

I would venture to say that autistics do fewer crimes per capita than do NTs in most types of crime.

Swindlers and con artists (Im pretty sure) are almost NEVER on the autistic spectrum.

Ditto gang bangers etc. I don't know if anyone has ever counted the number of autistics in the Bloods, Crips, or MS 13, gangs, but I am sure that its a far smaller proportion than the one-in-sixty proportion of autistics in the general population.

However though autistics are the minority of spree killers I admit that autistics may make up a bigger proportion of Columbine type killers than their proportion in the general population. So that's one crime autistics may outdo NTs relative to autistics much smaller numbers.

No group of humans is perfect. We are probably less criminally inclined than NTs in some ways, but we may be worse in a few narrow categories of crime. But my guess is that folks with ADHD (lack of impulse control, and thrill seeking)may have more run ins with the law than do either NTs or ASD folks per capita.

One thing that should be remembered:

People's conception of what constitutes a "low-functioning" autistic person varies widely.

Clinically, though, "low-functioning" people are usually incapable of crime because they are usually not deemed responsible for their actions. Similar to how anybody under about 7 years old age is not deemed responsible for criminal conduct.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 06 Nov 2019, 10:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

Autistic people, both of low and high support, are more likely to become the victims of crime than commit it, but naturally the media doesn't want society to know about that. They won't be happy until the next Hitler has us all killed.

Autistic people are MUCH more likely to be a VICTIM of crime than a PERPETRATOR of crime.

There seems to be no official statistics on this subject, so anyone's guess is as good (or bad) as any others'.

Do you mean by assault? If so possible but they won't be arrested for it. Same as if they assault a child. But I hear these cases like Issy Stapleten are very rare and are the 10% of autism where they are very violent and assault people and have the ability to push you down the stairs or grab the steering wheel to run you off the road.

I did see a youtube video of a parent taking care of a LFA child who is an adult and she couldn't have him in the front seat with her and he had to be in the back or else he would grab her steering wheel.

Then there is that story in 2009 when a 19 year old LFA person killed his mother by beating her to death and this was a normal thing for him to hit her during his meltdowns and she had to lock herself in the closet whenever he got violent and he would be pounding on the door to break in to hurt her. To me that sounds intentional because that isn't how meltdowns work. This man just had problems with impulse control and he had a mental age of a two year old so he was hospitalized instead and charged were dropped on him after he had been evaluated by a psychiatrist. So not only was he LFA, he also had a severe intellectual impairment that was profound.

If this is what you mean by committing more crimes, hopefully these are just rare cases in LFA and they don't go around attacking people and grabbing your steering wheel to try and run you off the road and chasing you around the house and trying to beat you.

I've noticed a recent trend in the media for any convicted murderers who seem a bit odd or creepy, to be described as autistic, but no evidence of any such diagnosis is ever offered. For the record, back when I first got interested in this stuff, when “Autistic” referred to an aspect of personality (and not just an adjective of autism) it was recognized that Autistics (in general) were underrepresented in prison populations. This is as should be expected as crime is essentially about seeking status (the real root of all evil: Albert Camus) or symbols thereof, which is not something of great interest to Autistics.

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Toronto Van Incel terrorist
Parkland High School mass shooter
There have been a number of other cases of mass shooters with confirmed ASD diagnosis

These cases do not negate what was said above.

Then there is the increasing use of the Autism defense.

I would not have thought so. In life, I have found that the higher someones intelligence, the more sophisticated and the greater crimes are committed.
Put it this way. A less brainy individual is more likely to get caught, so the crime rates look like the less brainy people commit the mst crimes. But whenever I have seen major fraud, it is nearly always the intelligent people who do it. Why? They may have started stealing small things and due to their intelligence, they never got caught or were able to talk their way out of it. They then get greedy and get away with more and more. One day though, they will have to accound for their crimes if they don't reform.

So to clarify. I see no reason why someone on the autistic spectrum is more or less likely to commit a crime then someone who is not on the spectrum, and I see no reason why a low or a high functioning person is more or less likely to commit a crime, and this goes the same with those who are not on the spectrum as well.

What I do see is that the less intelligent people are far more likely to get caught, but rhis does not mean they are more likely to commit a crime in the first place.

No