UK Criminal Justice System Fails Autistic Defendants: Report
Researchers at the University of Cambridge Autism Research Centre found that an overwhelming majority of lawyers' autistic clients were not provided with adequate support. In just under half of the cases that included a trial by jury (47 percent), the jury was not informed that the defendant was autistic.
Landwebs
In a new report, researchers at the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, UK, found that an overwhelming majority of lawyers’ autistic clients were not provided with adequate support or adjustments, and that only half of justice-involved autistic people (52 percent) were considered by the police to be vulnerable adults, even though the law recognizes all autistic people as vulnerable, reports Newswise.
The survey of 93 defense lawyers found that an ‘appropriate adult’ was not present during over a third (35 percent) of police investigations involving autistic defendants, even though their diagnosis was known to police, and despite all autistic people being entitled under the law to have an appropriate adult present when being interviewed by the police. In cases where the client was found to have committed a crime, 60 percent of judges saw the defendant’s autism as a mitigating factor, and in these cases the majority of autistic people were given a suspended or reduced sentence.
