Autism Spectrum Disorders and sexual offences

Background and Aims. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are neuro-developmental disorders, characterized by deficits in communication and social interaction as well as restricted repertoire of activity and interests. Even if the definition of autism has been more restricted, the most commonly used ASD categories are Autistic disorder, Asperger Syndrom, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, and Atypical Autism. The link between sexual crime and ASD has been suggested by some mediatic cases. The first known review of the link between Asperger Syndrome (AS) and violent crime concluded that no such relationship exists, in early literature even sexual offenses among ASD individuals, were under represented. The aim of this study was to conduct a review of the latest contributes concerning ASD and sexual offences. Materials and Methods. We used the following key words on Pubmed "autism and sexual offending", that produced 5 articles but only two were studies on a population of ASD individuals that committed non sexual crimes or sexual offences. Results. Langstrom e coll. used data for 422 individuals hospitalized with autistic disorder or Asperger syndrome and compares those committing violent or sexual offenses with those who did not. Erik Sondenaa e coll. examines all forensic examination reports over a 10-years period in Norway where the charged persons were diagnosed with ASD and charged with either a violent or a sexual offense. There are common findings in researches: sexual offence was more common among male adults participants diagnosed with Asperger syndrome (is probably due to unimpaired intellectual capacity and better social skills and interests of such individuals increasing the likelihood of violent offending, relative to participants with autistic disorder). Furthermore, comorbid psychotic and substance use disorders are associated with violent offending. Conclusions. We can conclude that sexual offending in ASD is related to similar co-occurring psychopathology as previously found among violent individuals without ASD. We believe that is very important to study the link between sexual offences and ASD, because analyses of the variables associated with further sexually abusive behavior indicated that a diagnosis of autism is associated with a higher likelihood of further sexually abusive behavior, if compared with other intellectual disabilities.