Autism In M Naghten's Case Study

You are driving home from school. You are almost home, just a couple more turns, when you see the flashing red and blue lights in your mirror. A police officer is pulling you over for who knows what. The officer walks to your window. You can’t meet his eyes. You hate eye contact. The officer is starting to get suspicious. He asks you to get out of your vehicle. As you step out of your vehicle he touches your arm. You flinch back as if you were just touched by a hot iron. You hate being touched. The police officer is very suspicious now. He thinks you are a criminal or a drunk. You are neither of those things. You are simply a teenager with ASD.
1 in 45 children in the United States are diagnosed with a form of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). The term Autism originates from the Greek
word “autos” which means self. Autism is a spectrum disorder containing many different disorders such as Asperger’s. Autism Spectrum Disorder has three main symptoms: “(1) abnormalities in social interaction; (2) abnormalities in communication; and (3) abnormalities in behaviours, interests, and activities, which are usually restricted and repetitive. Social communication problems include a narrow range of facial expressions, poor eye contact during interactions, and difficulty establishing relationships with peers” (Gene). These three symptoms often lead to poor quality in relationships and potential dangers when talking to police. People with ASD are mistreated in all judicial systems. People with ASD exhibit characteristics commonly associated with a guilty person. Most people with ASD have a strict moral code and “Researchers agree that most individuals with high functioning ASD are law abiding citizens who are more likely to be victims of crimes than commit crimes, but the are still seven times more likely to intersect with the criminal justice system than individuals without ASD” (Chiacchia). This is because cops are poorly equipped to deal with someone with ASD. This often leads to unorthodox court cases as sometimes a jury won’t be able to be used.
This puts into effect insanity law.
Insanity law is any kind of change to the judicial system based on the defendant’s mental state. There have been many various legal tests over the years, all of which have been criticised. Most judicial systems base it off the case of Daniel M’Naghten. “In M’Naghten’s Case (1843) the English judges held that “to establish a defence on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused as labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong.” Some U.S. courts went further and also relieved from responsibility one moved by an “irresistible impulse””(Norton). Still these measures aren’t enough. In Mack v. Western Australia a defendant with autism was convicted of murder on the circumstantial evidence. This man was unable to properly understand what was happening and didn’t go with a plea deal to lower his sentence. This shows that judicial systems are ill prepared to deal with autistic defendants or any defendant of any mental health
disease.
What can be done about this problem? People around the country like Aaron Likens, a man with Asperger’s, have been traveling around the country teaching people about Autism, even teaching police stations how to deal with people with ASD. Now let’s think back to that teenager with ASD. There are two ways that could’ve gone: one where the policeman is educated on ASD and one where the policeman is uneducated. That teenager could have been anyone. Your child. Your neighbor. Your friend. Or even you. Now which outcome would you prefer?