Autism

Autism is a mental condition, present from early childhood, characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract concepts. Since the DSM-5, Asperger syndrome has been included in the autism spectrum.

It has been argued that autistic people who view child pornography should in some situations not be prosecuted because they could be manifesting simulated deviance rather than being motivated by pedophilia. Eustacia Cutler wrote a The Daily Beast post entitled "Autism and Child Pornography: A Toxic Combination" that asserted that "many" Autistic men are attracted to child pornography and that this is "a disturbing trend we cannot ignore".

Unusual behaviors and interests

Autistic people may sometimes have unusual behaviors that can cause them to be accused of being sex offenders or potential sex offenders:

Though many people with AS are, “as a rule, extremely law-abiding and truthful, they often are unduly lacking in any level of sophistication which would allow them to appreciate the possible implications of their actions” or “to fully foresee how certain types of behavior (for example, standing outside the public restroom in a park at night or following a woman walking down the street too closely) or topics of conversation (for instance, an AS individual may describe aloud in an inappropriately frank way his or her sexual fantasies without screening speech for a proper audience or environment) may seem to others.

Autists may also have peculiar interests, such as in child pornography or criminal activities, that cause people to become concerned:

In other cases the peculiar interests may have nothing to do with the actual behavior but may be portrayed as informative of some aspect of a charged offense. For instance, in State v. Boyd, 143 S.W.3d 36 (Mo. App. Ct. 2004), where a young man was on trial for first degree murder, the defense sought to introduce evidence of the murder defendant’s AS to suggest an innocent explanation for the accused’s interest in violent books, which was being used against him. The trial court kept the evidence out, and defendant was convicted. On appeal, the court found that the AS evidence was relevant to understanding AS, determining whether the defendant had AS, as well as assessing the defendant’s assertions regarding his interest in violent books, and ordered a new trial.

Expert witness Dr. Richard Kleinmann testified in State v. Burr, that Asperger Syndrome individuals lack the pedophile's

certain abilities in order to take advantage of the child– . . . certain behaviors, isolate the child away from the caregiver, build up a trusting relationship, look for a child who is in a vulnerable situation and then inculcate certain behaviors, stand back, watch to see if there’s an objection to the behavior and if there’s no objection to continue on that course. [The AS individual] would be unable to do those things. That’s not to say a sexual offense is impossible . . . but in terms of manipulation of a child in order to get sexual gratification, I would say that’s very unlikely.

Cases

James Chadwick, 36, a man with Asperger syndrome, was found to have 184 images and 20 movies of children as young as six, many in the worst category, when his home in Palmerston Road was raided in March 2013. Passing a six month prison sentence suspended for two years at Bournemouth Crown Court on 26 February 2015, Judge John Harrow said: "I expect when you viewed these images you didn't give a moment’s thought to the circumstances in which they were made. It is an appalling industry, and of course it is funded by people like you." In mitigation, David Richards said his client had been diagnosed with "high-functioning autism" during the investigation. Chadwick was given a Sexual Offences Prevention Order until further notice, and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for seven years.

On 23 March 2016, federal judge sentenced Alex Carlsson, a Longwood man who was diagnosed at a young age with Asperger syndrome, to 10 years of probation – a sentence well-below the 6 1/2 years in prison that prosecutors wanted. A psychiatrist had found that he showed signs of pedophilia, in that he was sexually interested in children.