Slate article regarding autism and sex offenses

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Having worked with people with a variety of developmental disabilities for over 20 years, it is obvious to me that people are individuals and are not the same. Just like the phrase "if you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism."

No one on this forum can realistically evaluate what an autist can and can't understand. Just because you, editorially, know and understand something, it does not mean another autist can see it even if he has a dozen PhDs.

You say that, however, having ASD and haven been to more than one universities.
I would make this observation, that i would find it extremely unlikely that a man who is capable of living independently and likely without support from a family while attending a college to achieve academically PhD level of education

(which I believe takes on average about 8 years to achieve, on top of a graduate degree of 3 - 4 years, on top of an MA that takes between 1 - 2 years = i.e. in total between 12 and 14 years of full time education at the min, around normal people).

With the same person in the article with the Phd, also working in a full time job as a clinical psychologist, which is not an easy job to get and certainly would not be given to someone who is socially inept.

I would say that it would be impossible for such a person to not know that downloading child pornography was wrong or illegal. I say this also because as mentioned previously, i have worked with kids myself and know how rigorous the child safeguarding training is for people who are working with kids, and this is at recreational sport level and not as a full time psychologist.

Where i appreciate your opinion, and i have nothing against the person in the article, if he indeed even exists,
and i understand that some people with ASD are immature to some extent, and some even have a mental age that is lower than they are generally perceived.

People with a mental age of 8 would not have the life skills to function as uni, i know, as i have been to uni and found it extremely stressful to the stage that several of my colleagues who incidentally did not have mental health problems or neurological disorders were forced to drop out, and these were normal well adjusted decent people from functional well balanced backgrounds.

So for a lawyer to propose the suggestion that someone who is highly academic in social sciences (and psychology is indeed social science related), to say that such a person is a qualified Phd psychologist has the mental age of a 8 year old, i would find extremely suspicious.

Now, please don't get me wrong, i do believe in some cases some of the people with ASD do indeed not understand what they are doing when they do certain things, including myself. But for someone who is qualified and trained so extensively to work with kids, to then turn around and say that they don't understand. That sounds like a load of bull.

Please remember, some people with Phd's may be much more aware than they let people perceive them as, i also
know that some people may even be able to fake certain psychological evaluations (i mean, someone with a Phd in psychology would certainly know how to do this). Some people with ASD, may also not actually have ASD.

Now, i am not saying without a doubt, as i have never met the person in question.
However.... if i was a forensic investigator, criminal psychologist, or a child protection officer.
I would be extremely suspicious of this case if i laid the facts on the table for analysis.

You see, and i am not judging apart from i do believe child porn is wrong as well as child sex abuse.
I would say that the facts on this case do not add up, and i completely understand why some would want to escape
prosecution or being put in prison, or getting their name cleared after prison or getting people to know they are rehabilitated, as people murder child molesters. And specifically, violent, sadistic criminals murder child molesters.

So i can understand the motivation for someone who has been caught and prosecuted for such a crime.
to try and show rehabilitation, as it is self preservation.
please do not get me wrong, i am not a murderer. But i understand how some people behave.
And how others behave does have an impact on how we behave.

Thanks

Just out of interest. How many years have you spent at study in full time education while living independently.
And do you know of any people who has passed Phd's while living independently, who has the mental age of a 8 year old.

Yere. I think in this day and age, even most kids know that porn isn't what they should be looking at.
Let alone someone who is in their late 30s, who has spent 14 years in full time higher education at high level.
Hmmm smells more fishy than lawyers let on.

The problem with people viewing child porn is that:
1: it encourages unsavoury interests in children for sex gratification.
2: In order to make child porn, children need to be used and made to do things that would likely damage them psychologically.
3: fantasies can get out of hand, and in some cases encourage engagement in reality.

I do not think that the article is making the statement saying that all people who view child porn have neurological developmental disorder. I believe the article was attempting to explain why one particular highly educated individual with ASD viewed child porn and attempted to explain that the reason why he did was because he didn't fully understand because he suffered from ASD.

Personally, if someone suggested to me that all people who viewed child porn had ASD, i would be extremely offended, as it would be like calling all ASD sufferers child molesters.

I think also that some who have an unsavoury interest in child porn may seek out and fake a diagnosis of ASD, so they then can use it as a "get out of jail for free" card. While at the same time branding the many innocent people with ASD who are not child molesters with their reputation.

Please do not get me wrong I am not judging these people, not that i agree in their behaviour.
If these people are suffering from an illness that drives them to do such things compulsively, then i am very sorry for them. However, forgiving them does not actually prevent any further damage from being occurred, and when it comes to children, the children need to be protected. Regardless as to whether a person's behaviour is caused by illness or not.

In a similar way, that if a person with an illness becomes dangerously violent, in that they could then murder innocent people without knowing. Such people need to be taken out of normal society in order to make society safe.
If they act due to illness, then they need to be hospitalised and treated, and if no cure can be found, then they need to kept in hospital. Same for any person who poses a risk to children.

If such people are a risk to children, as an avid interest in child porn would suggest, then they need to kept an eye on.
If not, then who ever lets them roam freely is putting the worlds innocent children at risk. Again regardless at to the cause of the interest.

If the cause is illness, then hospital until cure.
If the cause is intentional sadism, black occultism, criminal, then prison for punishment.
If the culprit can not be cured. then don't let them back into safe society.

Keep the society safe. period. regardless at the cure.
for people who are ill, however, at least they do not get punished and can be treated humanely.

I have been saying this for years on here. I am pretty sure this has made me one of the most hated members here because I believe if someone cannot control themselves, they shouldn't be out in society where they can hurt innocent people.

I once read a story somewhere online (I believe it was a post) about an autistic man assaulting a 5 year old because he wanted the swing and the child wouldn't give it to him so he hit her causing her to go to the hospital. My thought about it was "where is the caregiver if he isn't accountable for his actions and if he can't be accountable for it, he shouldn't be out by himself and he needs to be in a care home and have a care taker." But it was sickening how people can blame the child and act like it was totally okay what the 27 year old did. I don't even remember the details so I might be off here.

In high school I was informed by my therapist that we are all responsible for our actions and if I can't be responsible for mine, I can't be in the real world. Since I want to have freedom, make adult choices, have human rights, I need to be accountable for my actions. I don't need a care home or some caregiver and be told how to live my life. Some people can never have that so they won't be able to have that privilege of freedom and making their own choices because of how severe their disability is. Some get institutionalized or hospitalized if they are not held accountable. I check my privilege.

I doubt that, it's just biological programming. In that respect the feminists are correct, we do tend to think with our dicks!

Religion and social morays tend to frown upon men gawking at 20yr old girls but it's just life.

Where was the parent of the 5yr old?

I do agree that the 27 yr old man should be watched but it's a two way street as parents are also responsible for their little ones.

It’s all on the autistic man.

What adult person would want a swing so bad that this adult person hurts a 5-year-old?

This adult person needs to be supervised......pure and simple.

Which is completely different from claiming most of us find 12-year-olds "attractive and sexy"

It should be noted that child porn is frequently embedded in adult porn websites.

If that is downloaded, then you could have downloaded child porn without meaning to.

Best be careful if you download porn.

I never do...for that reason.

It is pretty rare for a 12-year-old to look “fully adult.”

There are many attractive over 18s. Why not stick to them?

Another thing that is hardly ever mentioned...kids below a certain age are not physically ready for sexual intercourse. It can really hurt them in so many ways.

A grown man wanting intercourse with a child is someone who really wants to hurt people.

Trigger Warnings please

Autism is not a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card. If you do the crime, you should do the time.

I agree with you and was addressing this claim:



There will be exceptions, of course, but I don't think your run of the mill guy is attracted to your run of the mill 12-year-old girl.



Not allowing an adult to have sex with a 12-year-old has nothing to do whatsoever with "ageism" and calling people who don't want to have sex with very young girls perverts is hugely ironic to say the least

You conveniently ignore the fact that in the cultures you're referring the girls are usually not required to give their consent. Girls can start menstruating as early as 8 or 9, and that doesn't mean they are mentally capable of consenting to sex or physically capable of carrying a pregnancy to term. Sadly, there are plenty of tragic stories of such young girls dying horribly due to being impregnated so young

***TRIGGER WARNING***

I would say that the vast majority of 12-year-old girls are anatomically NOT READY to have sexual intercourse with a male person.

The same goes, by the way, to 12-year-old boys----or anybody 12 years old.

The laws address this fact, too. They address the fact that permanent damage to a child's body---and serious infections-- could be the result of some man attempting to perform sexual intercourse with a child.

I would purport that any adult male who attempts to have sexual intercourse with a child is committing FELONY ASSAULT, in addition to rape.