Around 700,000 people have been diagnosed with autism in the UK, with one in 100 children being on the spectrum, according to data by the British Medical Association. There’s one issue some parents with autistic children are having to face – the condition being used as an excuse for criminality or bad behaviour
That’s the case for mum Renée White, who says she is sick of people using autism as a “get out of jail free card”, the Manchester Evening News reports. Renée, whose 23-year-old son Aidan has autism, thinks people using the condition as an 'excuse' reflects unfairly on the majority of people with an autistic spectrum disorder.
“Pretty much every week there is some story in the press or on a real-life drama with mention of someone being on the spectrum and using it as part of their defence,” the 45-year-old said. It’s just constant now; you can’t go a week without hearing it being used as a defence, that’s always a bother because in a typical person’s psyche, somewhere along the way, they’re going to link autism and criminal behaviour and people on the spectrum are generally not criminals.
