Autism and offending behaviour: needs and services

Abstract

Purpose

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) brings out the limitations of the Criminal Justice Service. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the salient issues and their remedies.

Design/methodology/approach

A narrative review based on the literature and the clinical experience of the authors.

Findings

ASD’s hidden disabilities, even without the frequent coexistence of other disorder, derail the standard responses to offending.

Practical implications

Management of these individuals as offenders depends on awareness of the issues, adaptation and the input of a variety of other services, especially health, social care and employment.

Originality/value

Although this is a very active field of work, there is relatively little written about it.

Citation

Pearce, H. and Berney, T. (2016), "Autism and offending behaviour: needs and services", Advances in Autism, Vol. 2 No. 4, pp. 172-178. https://doi.org/10.1108/AIA-06-2016-0016