20/08/2025
Chris English
By Ciara Placentino
Neurodiversity is an umbrella term that refers to a group of conditions that fall under the broader category of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), including Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC). Autism is a genetic developmental condition from birth resulting in a difference in the neuron ‘wiring’ of the brain, with studies finding widespread underconnectivity and localised overconnectivity in autistic brains. These overconnectivity sites can mean either something works particularly and intensely well, such as having special interests, or intensely not well, with areas of barely connected thoughts, leading to things such as not being able to remember certain events. In the criminal justice system (CJS) this can cause issues such as struggling to recall behaviours in interviews or forgetting to attend important court or probation appointments, which can lead to professionals perceiving them to be purposely not co-operating.
People with autism often experience hypo and/or hyper-sensitivity to touch. Touch can be painful and uncomfortable and can cause emotional or aggressive outbursts, which can lead to arrests. Some may like touch however only when it is on their terms, which can lead to resisting arrest and increase the likelihood of unintentional violence against police officers.
To cope with sensory difficulties, people with autism often use stimming behaviours such as nail biting, hair pulling, and skin picking. This helps people with autism when they are stressed or anxious as a way of replacing something uncomfortable with something familiar and safe to keep their brain focused on it. Going through the CJS is a stressful experience and so is likely to incite stimming for people with autism, however this is not usually understood or received well as it goes against social norms. This can lead to someone trying to stop the autistic person from stimming, comments that may make the person feel self-conscious or ridiculed, or the autistic person attempting to mask (suppressing behaviours to fit in) such behaviours, all of which can lead to further distress for the autistic person and increase likelihood of a meltdown or outburst. Additionally, masking behaviours can seem suspicious or dishonest to police officers and so can put people with autism under a microscope.
Furthermore, impairments in the frontal lobe can lead to issues with executive functioning such as decision making, emotional management, self-regulation, not understanding unwritten social ‘rules’, and problems with the pathway to show empathy. This can increase likelihood of triggering unhelpful (and potentially criminal) behaviours, behaving in what can seem to be an inappropriate manner, and can detriment people with autism during sentencing as they may not demonstrate empathy towards victims in the way expected by juries and judges. In addition, people with autism experience communication difficulties which can further disadvantage them in the CJS; issues with turn taking and interrupting can be seen as defiance and a lack of eye contact could be perceived as being dishonest.
NDDs are particularly prevalent in the CJS, with 11% of UK prisoners being diagnosed with autism compared to 1% of the UK population. Prison staff often don’t know about a prisoner’s NDDs and so cannot provide adequate support as there is no alert on NOMIS (the prison service’s system) for NDDs. As well as lacking appropriate support and recognition from staff, NDDs can further detriment someone’s experience of prison; NDD prisoners often don’t meet the behaviour criteria for paid prison jobs, and the prison environment is noisy, with shared cells and fluorescent lighting, which can further exacerbate NDD difficulties. Single cells in prisons are typically only for high-risk prisoners, and so unfortunately NDD issues are often not considered until an incident of self-harm.
Best practice when working with people with autism: