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Violence is rare in autism : when it does occur, is it sometimes extreme?

Allely, CS; Wilson, P; Minnis, H; Thompson, L; Yaksic, E; Gillberg, C

Authors

P Wilson

H Minnis

L Thompson

E Yaksic

C Gillberg



Abstract

A small body of literature has suggested that, rather than being more likely to engage in offending or violent behaviour, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may actually have an increased risk of being the victim rather than the perpetrator of violence (Sobsey et al., 1995). There is no evidence that people with ASD are more violent than those without ASD (Im, 2016). There is nevertheless a small subgroup of individuals with ASD who exhibit violent offending behaviours and our previous work has suggested that other factors, such as adverse childhood experiences, might be important in this subgroup (Allely et al., 2014). Fitzgerald (2015) highlights that school shootings and mass killings are not uncommonly carried out by individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, with frequent evidence of warning indicators. The aim of the present review is to investigate this in more detail using the 73 mass shooting cases identified by Mother Jones (motherjones.com) in their database for potential ASD features. This exercise tentatively suggests evidence of ASD in six of 73 included cases (8%) which is ten times higher when compared to the prevalence of ASD found in the general population worldwide (motherjones.com). The 8% figure for individuals with ASD involved mass killings is a conservative estimate. In addition to the six cases which provide the 8% figure, there were 15 other cases with some indication of ASD. Crucially, ASD may influence, but does not cause, an individual to commit extreme violent acts such as a mass shooting episode.

Citation

Allely, C., Wilson, P., Minnis, H., Thompson, L., Yaksic, E., & Gillberg, C. (2016). Violence is rare in autism : when it does occur, is it sometimes extreme?. Journal of Psychology, 151(1), 49-68. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2016.1175998

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 5, 2016
Online Publication Date May 16, 2016
Publication Date May 16, 2016
Deposit Date Apr 11, 2016
Publicly Available Date Jun 14, 2016
Journal Journal of Psychology
Print ISSN 0022-3980
Electronic ISSN 1940-1019
Publisher Routledge
Volume 151
Issue 1
Pages 49-68
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2016.1175998
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2016.1175998
Related Public URLs http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/00223980.asp

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