Australian terrorism prediction tool considered autism a sign of criminality despite lack of evidence

A report into a terrorism prediction tool found there was no empirical evidence for the inclusion of autism spectrum disorders in risk factors. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

A tool designed to predict future crime in terrorist offenders considered them at greater risk of offending if they were autistic despite having no empirical basis to do so, an independent report has found.

The report into the Vera-2R tool, which was released to Guardian Australia and others under freedom of information laws, found a lack of evidence underpinning the instrument had “potentially serious implications for [its] validity and reliability” and found it was “extremely poor” at predicting risk.