Autistic Offenders’ Perceptions of Their Interactions with Police

Autistic individuals encounter police at different times across their life; however, there is limited research on these experiences. The aim of this research was to explore autistic individuals’ (convicted of offences) perceptions of their interactions with the police. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 registered offenders who had an autism diagnosis or were suspected to be autistic. Following thematic analysis, three themes were generated from the interview data: 1. Doing their job but … treating me like a criminal, 2. Trying to get through: The impact on me, and 3. Respecting the person. A range of experiences were reported with predominantly negative perceptions of pre-conviction encounters. The findings from this study highlight the need for improved police training to identify autistic people and to adapt police interactions to better support autistic people.