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Jailed for autism?Vulnerable, undiagnosed autistic children are over-represented in the juvenile justice system, says Monash University researcher and clinician Dr Teresa Flower, speaking at the international child mental health conference at the Melbourne Convention Centre.Many are simply not diagnosed before arriving, and being jailed does them no good – in fact they may be bullied and abused by fellow inmates, and exposed to inappropriate and ineffective treatment, Dr Flower says. “They have poor social skills which lead to difficulties when they end up in custody. They don’t pick up subtle nuances when it comes to fitting in. They become the lowest in the pecking order so often get bullied.” Dr Flower said it was important when diagnosing autism to know a child’s developmental history – what they were like when they were young, what they played with, how they related to others. But many children who ended up in the juvenile justice system had lost contact with their families and spent time in government-supported care, so they were harder to diagnose “It is not the fault of the juvenile justice system that only when these children arrive do we realise they have high-functioning autism.” One recent example was a boy who stole underwear and sat too closely to girls on busses, largely though a lack of social skills. “These children become obsessional and don’t understand that what they are doing is harmful to others. Then they get into the court system because they don’t stop the behaviour.” Once locked up, treatment such as group therapy did not work. “Being jailed is not a deterrent and does not rehabilitate them.” Dr Flower recommended that increased funding be devoted to the expansion of community forensic services for children and adolescents, in order that more suitable treatment programs could be developed for this group. Dr Flower will today talk on this issue in Melbourne at the 17th World Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions. More than 1400 delegates have gathered for the congress, which is held every four years.
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