By Ally Mullord
Autism and Aspergers Syndrome shouldn’t be a reason for criminal offenders to avoid justice, Autism New Zealand says, but more education for police would help them manage autistic offenders appropriately.
Autism NZ chief executive Alison Molloy joined Firstline this morning to discuss police handling of incidents involving autism after charges were dropped against Christchurch looter Cornelius Arie Smith-Voorkamp, who has Aspergers.
Ms Molloy says if police were better trained to recognise the signs of autism and Aspergers they would be less likely to “respond in a way that exacerbates the situation rather than minimises it” when dealing with autistic offenders.
“[Autism] is not of itself an excuse for getting off a criminal offence - however it is a factor in how you respond to it.”
In high-pressure situations people affected by autism or Aspergers may respond differently to police expectations – something Ms Molloy says may have been a factor in the Christchurch looting case.
“The fact that Arie and his friend were in a place where they shouldn’t have been, you would imagine that the police would respond to that,” she says.
“If police… were more aware of the responses which would be different in a time of high stress for a person on the spectrum, then that would have helped the situation much better.”
She says training would enable police dealing with agitated people to recognise that “maybe this person is on the spectrum, and therefore the behaviour is as a result of high anxiety or high stress”.
“A person… who is very, very anxious and physically agitated – the initial response might be to try and restrain them. With a person on the spectrum that might be exactly the wrong thing to do.”
However, she says police “were doing a very good job” in the high-pressure environment following the Christchurch quake, and autism doesn’t excuse criminal behaviour.
“I don’t believe that when somebody commits a crime for whatever reason, that there shouldn’t be consequences for that.”
Watch the video for the full interview
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