Family and Friends Forum

There are two seperate issues here. Why are so many men on the spectrum being arrested and what causes someone to be attracted to children.

There is no simple answer as to why some people are attracted. But plenty of men who are not autistic have this attraction too, so the two things are not linked, despite the high number of arrests of autistic men. It's also the case that a lot of these offences are committed by men who don't have an attraction, but who are addicted to porn.

The reasons why autistic men are especially vulnerable to committing these offences is better understood. Clare Allely has written a lot about this. See

Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Criminal Justice System: A Guide to Understanding Suspects, Defendants and Offenders with Autism. by Dr. Clare S. Allely Paperback – 12 April 2022

My son was caught by vilantes, communication with decoy,he as just been diagnosed with autsim

When he registered at the police station, they told him a lot of people on autsim spectrum, get caught in this crime

My FM has ADHD, diagnosed in adulthood

Hi, my person has been diagnosed as high spectrum autistic after the knock but he's in no way a "P" word . The definition of a "P" is sexual attraction to pre pubescents (I'm sure that's the right way to explain) and my person has no interest in children and has had long term relationships with female adults, he just went down a dark path at such a low point in his life and without understanding his autism and he finally felt he could open up to talking about childhood abuse he suffered from the age of 9.

I think my point is autistic people on these journeys are no more a "P" than the next person without autism. Autism can affect social awareness in situations which maybe explains some behaviour of this type, it in no way excuses it but is maybe a contributing factor beyond their control, then they find themselves in a situation such as this

Xx

Right from early on in our relationship, I've had a suspicion that my husband could have ASD. A few friends have thought it too, and my mum. I've never brought it up with him as he'd find it so hard to talk about, and would just change the subject, like he always does with anything awkward. I got The Knock just a week ago, and spoke to someone from the LFF helpline the day after. She said a high proportion of autistic men are guilty of online sexual offences.

As far as he's said, and I think he's being honest, he saw a link on a Torrent website while downloading software for his computer. It had trigger words which appealed to his legal porn viewing (which i had no idea about) and he opened the file, and Pandora's box.

I'd never use potential ASD as an excuse for his abhorrent behaviour, but it could be a contributing factor. He's been looking at assessment privately, but that's too costly, so he's going to talk to his GP about being assessed on the NHS. But of course that could take years, and he will have possibly been charged and sentenced by then. Not that I know if a diagnosis makes any difference with a judges decision?

Although, if by some miracle he was able to get a quick assessment, and he doesn't have ASD, I think that might make me less likely to forgive and support him. I absolutely hate this situation.

I've certainly read that a disproportionate number of teen offenders are autistic. I think autistic young ppl can end up spending an awful lot of time online to compensate for difficulties with social interaction IRL, plus can disproportionately struggle with their sexuality & be extra vulnerable to manipulation by others. I have a vague memory of reading somewhere that autistic young ppl are also distortionately vulnerable to online political radicalisation.

Without going into too many details, as we're all anon on here, I have family members on the autistic spectrum (a mix of varied levels of understanding of the world around them) when someone struggles with social interactions, online activities are a minefield, they don't understand/can't differentiate ages/images