Open AccessA case series of five individuals with asperger syndrome and sexual criminality
Author(s) -
Santhosh Kumar,
Yamini Devendran,
Amrtavarshini Radhakrishna,
Varsha Karanth,
H Chandrashekar
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of mental health and human behaviour/journal of mental health and human behaviour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2543-1897
pISSN - 0971-8990
DOI - 10.4103/0971-8990.210703
Subject(s) - asperger syndrome , psychology , autism , context (archaeology) , psychiatry , parallels , intelligence quotient , clinical psychology , cognition , developmental psychology , paleontology , biology , mechanical engineering , engineering
The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders has increased in recent years and so has the focus on high functioning autism and Asperger syndrome. A subset of Asperger individuals appears to have a propensity to engage in acts of violence, particularly sexual crimes, which may best be attributed to the core features of their pathology such as “mind-blindness” and paucity of central coherence. This paper is an account on five such cases encountered in our hospital for whom various assessments were done including Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, intelligence quotient assessment by Binet Kamat test of intelligence, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Ritvo Asperger's and Autism Diagnostic Scale, and Gillberg's criteria for diagnosis. These cases gained legal attention and “undeserved” outcomes. By drawing parallels from other countries, a few suggestions have been highlighted in the paper that can be considered to discard glaring deficits in the criminal law system in India in this context