Rare instances of individuals with autism supporting or engaging in terrorism: a response to Lino Faccini and Clare Allely
| Date | 12 March 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JIDOB-06-2017-0012 |
| Published date | 12 March 2018 |
| Pages | 59-63 |
| Author | Nicholas Paul Chown,Luke Beardon,Kleio Cossburn |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Learning & intellectual disabilities,Offending behaviour,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Deviant behaviour,Education,Special education/gifted education,Emotional/behavioural disorders |
Rare instances of individuals with autism
supporting or engaging in terrorism: a
response to Lino Faccini and Clare Allely
Nicholas Paul Chown, Luke Beardon and Kleio Cossburn
The authors of the above article were careful, both in the title of their article, and in
the main body text, to make it clear to readers that the involvement of persons with
autism in terroris m is a rare occurrence. Our analysis o f the case studies in the article sugge sts
that concurrence of autism per se and terro rism may actually be e ven less than is implie d
by the authors. We felt compelled to write to you in view of the potential for autism to be
wrongly associated with terrorism in the minds of the public despite attempts to
ensure objectivi ty.
In a journal with a focus on intellectual disability[1] (ID), the authors should make it clear that
autism per se is not an ID. Where there is co-morbid ID in addition to autism, the situation is more
complex and conclusions cannot be drawn so easily about autism (or ID).
We believe that the following points support our view that the concurrence of autism and
terrorism is likely to be significantly less than may be implied by Faccini and Allely:
1. Despite the mentions of “rare instances/occurrences”in the title and main body text, the
fact that there are aspects of autism (e.g. compliance with rules) that mitigate against
involvement in criminal activity as well as aspects (e.g. immaturity/naivety) that could lead to
such involvement, requires a balanced investigation to avoid unintentional bias implying a
connection between autism and terrorism in the absence of evidence.
2. The authors cite O’Neill and Simpson (2015a, b) who wrote that: “Asperger’sorautism,
serious learning difficulties and low self-esteem, among other conditions”have been
identified “as a potential part of the path to radicalization specifically the conditions which
extremists are increasingly exploitingin individuals they target for recruiting and training”(our
italics) –thisstatement by O’Neill and Simpson is misleadingas it does not make it clear that
there are paths to radicalization without AS or autism i.e. they should have written “as a
potential part of apath to radicalization”. We note that Allely agrees with Al-Attar (2016a, b)
that “there is no empirical evidence to show that people on the autism spectrum are at
increased risk of engaging in terrorist offenses or that autismis over-represented in terrorist
offenders”. So, evento say that persons with autism are on apotential path to radicalization
wrongly highlights autism in this context.
3. There is reference in the article to Weenink (2015) having referred to autism as being a
“mental illness[2]”. Autism is a lifelong developmental condition involving cognitive
differences, not a mental illness. This fact needs to be stressed given the potential links
between mental illness and terrorism. It is also essential to identify if an autistic individual
involved in terrorism has a co-morbid mental illness.
4. The authors write: “In addition, Corner et al. (2016)[3] identified five individuals with an ASD
(3.3 per cent) in their sample of 153 lone actor terrorists. There is an urgent need for further
examination of any connection between terrorism and individuals with ASD”–Corner and
Gill (2017) write that “Three disorders held a substantially higher prevalence than found
within general populations (schizophrenia, delusional disorder, and autism spectrum
DOI 10.1108/JIDOB-06-2017-0012 VOL. 9 NO.1 2018, pp.59-63, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2050-8824
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JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES AND OFFENDING BEHAVIOUR
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