New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline - Ministry of Health

Part 5: Living in the community
Vulnerability to being a victim of crime may
also be related to offender characteristics (eg,
personality, occupation), characteristics of the
interactions between offender and victim (eg,
legitimate authority and power), social control,
the environment in which the offence occurs
and the culture of society (eg, attitudes towards
people who are different) 390 .
The first step in prevention is good-quality care,
especially when people with ASD are young
or also have an intellectual disability. Parents,
families, whänau, teaching authorities and service
managers/coordinators should try to ensure
that anyone in regular contact with the person
with ASD is considered to be safe (ie, no relevant
criminal convictions, not violent), is preferably
trained in ASD, and is appropriately supported
and supervised if they spend much time together
with the person with ASD (Recommendation
5.3.2). As children with ASD grow older, social
skills development is important; for example,
education in sexual safety strategies, community
safety, strategies to keep safe when out at
night and what to do if they are abused 391-393
(Recommendations 5.3.3, 5.3.4).
Special legal provisions and practices in
New Zealand have been developed to manage
situations in which people with intellectual
disability are complainants and/or witnesses
in criminal cases 395 . These practices are research
based, and there is a growing international
literature in this area 396 397 . While some of this
will be of relevance to people with ASD who
also have an intellectual disability, more ASDspecific
research is needed as the issues may be
different (Recommendation 5.3 7). For example, in
contrast to non-autistic people, people with ASD
may well be less likely to make ‘false memory’
errors when interviewed 398 . Furthermore,
research is needed on how best to support
people with ASD to give evidence. For example,
while facilitated communication (FC) was used
to assist non-verbal people with ASD to give
evidence in some court settings internationally
in the 1980s and 1990s, research suggests that the
results of FC are not valid and that FC should
not be used in court 399 .
5.3.b People with ASD suspected,
accused, charged, convicted of crimes
Little research has been undertaken on the
effects of abuse on people with disabilities
or ASD, or how to reduce the effects of such
stress 394 . Although a study 394 used a structured
parental interview to delineate the effects of
abuse from other behaviour in non-verbal
children with autism who had been exposed
to abuse, much more research is needed
(Recommendation 5.3.5).
People with ASD need to be able to access the
age-appropriate service for supporting people
who are at risk or who have been victimised (eg,
Child, Youth and Family (CYF), Victim Support,
ACC (Sensitive Claims Unit) and other systems)
(Good Practice Point 5.3 16). In cases where people
with ASD are unable to manage their property
and personal welfare decisions and guard
themselves against harm (eg, if they have a
severe intellectual disability as well), the Family
Court, on application, may appoint someone else
to manage their affairs (Recommendation 5.3 6).
Despite some high-profile criminal cases where
people with ASD have been convicted of serious
crimes, no strong evidence exists associating
ASD with criminal behaviour 262 352 400 401 . For
example, in a study published in 1999, ASD was
diagnosed in only 2.4% of the total population
of patients in special hospitals in England 402 .
However, the prevalence of ASD in the prisons
and secure settings is unknown 262 403 ; research is
underway in Wales to explore this area further 404
(Recommendation 5.3.8).
It has been hypothesised that people with
ASD may be at risk of committing offences
because of ASD-related behavioural traits and
characteristics, such as lack of empathy, lack
of social understanding, pursuit of obsessional
interests, failure to recognise the implications
of their behaviour, rigid adherence to rules
and misuse by others 262 352 405 . However an
alternative view is that engaging in criminal
acts is due to the affect of co-morbid conditions,
Part 5
New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline 181