Content warning: This post discusses violence, discrimination, and negative attitudes about Autistic people. If you are in Australia and find this post distressing, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or chat online. Lifeline offers language support services. For non-urgent information about autism, call the Australian national autism helpline on 1300 308 699.

In the media, it’s not uncommon to see news stories linking autism and violent, criminal behaviour. One well-known example is the Sandy Hook tragedy, when Adam Lanza – who was autistic – gunned down elementary school students in the United States. One can also find autism crime stories in Australia. For example, when a teenager stabbed a religious leader in Sydney, the teen’s parents’ suggested that he might be an undiagnosed autistic person. In 2022, a 13-year-old Autistic child in the state of Victoria found himself facing criminal charges after the police encouraged him to commit terrorist outrages.

So, are Autistic people more likely to commit crimes, especially violent ones? ¹

The answer is no.  There is no convincing evidence to suggest that Autistic people are inherently more likely to commit crimes, whether violent or otherwise.  On the contrary, autism is more likely to be a protective factor, decreasing risk of crime and violence.  Autistic people are a marginalised group and are often victims of crime or violence, and the fact that these risk factors aren’t making Autistic people commit more crimes suggests something else must be providing protection.

Unfortunately, research and news stories about autism and crime tend to be biased, which has created lots of misinformation about the topic.

Failure to consider socioeconomic factors

A crucial gap in our understanding of autism and criminal offending is that most research overlooks life experiences and socioeconomic factors.

We know that people from marginalised groups – like indigenous people and racialised minorities – are more likely to have encounters with the law.  We now understand that such disparities aren’t due to some inherent tendency for violence or crime based on race.  We know there are other causes, such as socioeconomic marginalisation and poverty, ongoing discrimination, lasting effects of oppression and trauma, and loss of culture.

However, when we think about autism, we often forget the importance of these socioeconomic factors.  Instead, we attribute any possible differences in crime rates between autistic and non-autistic people to autistic traits, like hyper-focusing or a need for certainty. Tools have been developed with this focus in mind.  Larger socioeconomic factors are neglected.

While some research does control for a few socioeconomic factors, like whether an Autistic person has other conditions or their parents’ income, they miss many other important factors.  Studies rarely consider things like the income or job opportunities of Autistic adults, or the discrimination they face, like laws around driving in Queensland or biases that make autistic people less likely to be hired for jobs.  They don’t consider the violence, exploitation, isolation, trauma, and sensory distress that many autistic people experience.

Thus, if – hypothetically speaking – we were to see convincing evidence that Autistic people are more likely to commit crimes, we couldn’t simply blame autism.  First, we would need to account for these socioeconomic factors, which would be complex.  For example, even treating Autistic people as though they are more likely to be violent criminals would create stigma, potentially creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.  It would be very difficult to account for all of the factors besides autism that could cause crime – and so far, we haven’t really tried.

But are autistic people more likely to commit crimes?

Let’s put socioeconomic factors aside, and simply ask whether Autistic people are more likely to commit crimes.

Some would say yes.  For example, a book by Michael Fitzgerald asserts that a subgroup of Autistic people, who he refers to as “Criminal Autistic Psychopaths,” are barely capable of empathy and “are not capable of reciprocity indeed are interested in precisely the opposite that is in control domination and degradation” [sic].  However, Fitzgerald’s sensationalist claims have little evidence behind them.

Research suggests otherwise.  When you compare groups of Autistic and non-autistic people in the general population, Autistic people don’t seem more likely to have offended than non-autistic people, and indeed, they might be less likely to commit crimes. ²

It’s true that the likelihood of Autistic people committing crimes could also vary depending on the type of offence.  However, except for possibly arson and property damage, there’s little evidence that Autistic people are more likely to commit any specific type of crime.  A large study did suggest that Autistic people without intellectual disabilities might be more likely to commit violent crimes, but this effect disappears when one accounts for other conditions.  Another study analyzing 73 mass shootings suggests at least 6 involved Autistic people, but only 3 of the shooters actually had autism diagnoses.  These small numbers don’t provide much evidence to conclude the rate is elevated.  Moreover, the study didn’t include some types of shooting, like gang violence, where Autistic people could be less likely to be involved due to their tendency to be more resistant to social pressure.

Thus, there isn’t really any solid evidence indicating that Autistic people are more likely to commit crimes.  In fact, they might be less likely to do so.

This is surprising and remarkable when one considers life experiences and socioeconomic factors.  Autistic people are more likely to experience sexual violence, bullying, abuse, and neglect, and more likely to be repetitively victimised.  Autistic people are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed.  Autistic people can experience sensory distress so chronic and overwhelming that it becomes difficult to control one’s actions.  Ordinarily, we’d expect all of this to cause an elevated crime rate!

So, why do Autistic people appear so unlikely to commit crimes?  Instead of thinking of Autistic traits as predisposing people towards crime,³ perhaps we should spend more time thinking about how Autistic traits could also protect people from crime.  On average, autistic people are more likely to do the right thing when they could profit from wrongdoing.  Why is this?  There seem to be many possible explanations.  For example, maybe Autistic people’s emotional empathy is less likely to “turn off” at convenient moments, or maybe Autistic people tend to be more principled in caring about rules and order.

In summary, Autistic people are not more likely to be criminals.  Research suggests that Autistic people generally show very high levels of law-abiding behaviour despite their marginalisation and vulnerability to victimisation.  It seems clear that we have a responsibility to be more inclusive and accepting, and to address discrimination and violence against Autistic people.

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1. It’s important to note that this post focuses on autistic people who can communicate effectively and are more likely to be considered criminally responsible in a court of law.  Autism is highly diverse, and violent behaviour in others – in autistic people who might be unable to communicate their needs, who might have pronounced intellectual disabilities, who might be under guardianship, and who would be unlikely to be seen as criminally responsible – poses a very different set of issues.
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2. Other studies focus on Autistic people in prisons and in the justice system, but these yield wildly different results.  Some suggest very few or no Autistic people end up in prison, while others suggest much larger numbers do.  However, some of the studies were based specifically on those referred for psychiatric assessment or used imperfect tools.  At worst, they might suggest that more Autistic people end up in the justice system even though their crime rate is no different from, or lower than, the general population – which might reflect either the nature and severity of the offences, or discrimination.
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3. [3] This doesn’t mean that work on links between crime and autistic traits lacks value.  If non-autistic people don’t understand autistic ways of thinking and communicating, they may draw the wrong conclusions, like in the case of the 13-year-old child encouraged to become a terrorist by police. ↩︎