"Autistic people use their autism as an excuse for abusive behavior all the time"

5 min read

This is probably the most harmful statement I have heard about autism in a long time.

Not because it's not true. But because of the IMPLICATION it is making...

Which results in extreme mistreatment and discrimination of autistic people AS A WHOLE.

All this statement does is make people think that *most* autistic people are abusive and are hiding behind their diagnosis to avoid taking responsibility for their abusive actions.

When this could not be farther from the truth.

Decades of research has consistently found that autistic people are more likely to be VICTIMS of abuse than abusers themselves.

In fact, not a single study has found that autistic people perpetrate abuse at higher rates than nonautistic people.

Not. A. Single. One.

Do SOME autistic people use their autism as an excuse for abusive behavior? Sadly, yes. It does happen.

And when it happens, it's wrong. Full stop.

But this is the EXCEPTION.

NOT the RULE.

Yet the maddening reality for autistic people is that our autistic behaviors... the behaviors that stand out because they are different and misunderstood, NOT because they are abusive... are consistently viewed as "bad."

And this needs to change.

Now.

Not after those of us still living are long gone.

We deserve to see this understanding happen in our lifetimes.

We deserve to stop being mistreated and abused for our differences.

And we deserve space to talk about this mistreatment without immediately being told that what we're saying doesn't matter because SOME genuinely bad autistic people are using their autism as an excuse.

(Good gosh is this exhausting)

Here's a link to a study that found no significant difference between autistic and nonautistic groups when it came to perpetration of abuse, but found autistic people to experience increased victimization as compared to the nonautistic group.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00203/full

Note that while I'm only sharing one study to provide a clear and accessible reference for this post, its findings are consistent with decades of research.