NeuroConverse

Autism, School, and Crime

Neil Alexander-Passe — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100

Background: This paper explores the ‘school-to-prison pipeline’ and aims to raise awareness about the vulnerabilities of young people with autism in society.

Methods: This study employs a creative empirical review that combines insights from educational settings with empirical evidence related to autism and crime.

Results: The paper addresses the following topics: (1) risk factors for offending behaviour, (2) the involvement of police with individuals on the autism spectrum, (3) social naivety and the concept of 'joint enterprise,' (4) stimming and repetitive behaviours, (5) types of crimes committed by individuals with autism, and (6) the lack of training for arresting police officers regarding autism.

Conclusions: It is acknowledged that not all individuals with autism engage in criminal activities; in fact, many are highly vulnerable to becoming victims of crime themselves. When arrested by police officers, individuals with autism can experience elevated levels of dysregulation, often resulting in meltdowns that may be misinterpreted as threatening behaviour. This misperception places them at greater risk of facing charges of assault and being detained under mental health legislation.

Neurodiversity and Data

Charles Freeman — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100

Inadequate data, acts as a barrier, making it difficult for public bodies, to measure the impact of neuro inclusion policy.

The Neurodivergent (ND) community suffers from a problem of triple invisibility.

-ND people are frequently not visible to themselves - Most ND people are never diagnosed and therefore do not know they are neurodivergent.

-ND people are not visible to other people. You cannot tell if someone is ND by sight or casual observation.

-ND people are not visible in public policy. Without good data it is hard for public policy to measure differences between the experiences of ND people and other members of society.

While this issue of visibility is significant to the ND community, failure to recognise the significance of neurodivergence has a wider impact on the economy and society. For example, in the UK around 9m working-age people are not in employment. 2.6m are not working for health reasons. (Sky News , 2024) Many in this category are ND, not diagnosed at school and wanting to work. If they were able to work it would increase economic growth, reduce benefit bills and lift a pressure on the NHS. However partly because of lack of quality data Neurodivergence is rarely identified as a focus for employability policy.

This paper concludes with a call to action to researchers and advocates. The ND community should pragmatically build a data toolkit, which would embrace shared definitions, a shared approach to estimating the incidence of neurodiversity in the population, a shared approach to using survey data to estimate the incidence on neurodivergence in various settings and a shared convention on how to benchmark data.

Recognising Difference

Jessica Dark — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0100

This article examines one family’s evolving understanding of autism through a neurodiversity-affirming lens, informed by lived experience, poetic inquiry, and critical reflection. Positioned as both researcher and parent, I explore how my identification as autistic emerged alongside efforts to support my neurodivergent children, particularly my daughter, whose internalised distress was initially overlooked. Drawing on Poetic Autoethnography and Poetic Ethnography, I integrate original poetry, narrative, and scholarly insight to explore how identity, recognition, and advocacy are shaped within everyday family life. This work contributes to neurodivergent scholarship by foregrounding lived experiences and community-informed perspectives, advocating for inclusive and compassionate practices in education, parenting, and research.