A Direct Response to Wyoming Institute of Technology's Article

NOTE: Since posting this article it has been brought to my attention that this maybe a fraud. I cannot find any reputable sites debunking this article. As it turns out the Wyoming Institute is a real place, but it is not considered a place of higher education. Basically its a large scam with poor quality professors and facilities. Here is a link to one of these articles: Ripoff Report.

The Wyoming Institute of Technology has released an article stating that "92% of murderers are diagnosed with Aspergers". They state that their scientists ran "extensive" tests on 2,000 prisoners in 7 different states and found that 92% of them have Aspergers Syndrome. You can read the entire article here: Civic Tribune.

The total prison population in the United States is approximately 2,228,424 of the total 317 million people in the US. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development approximates 36,500 children of every 4 million born each year will have Autism. That brings the number to one in every 88 children.

This article directly relates those with Aspergers to sociopaths and states "Coupled with their lack of empathy, and boundaries, people who suffer from Aspergers could potentially be extraordinarily dangerous". I being a mom of an High Functioning Autism took immediate notice of this. First I'd like to point out a few things. By no means am I a doctor of psychology or psychiatry, but I do have a strong background in mental health to include a bachelors degree in both Criminal Justice and Psychology. My course of study included Adolescent Psychology and Abnormal Psychology along with Testing and Measurements. A few issues I have with this study are as follows:

First, who are these "scientists" and what is their experience in the field of mental health? Dr. Franklin Forrester is directly cited as the individual writing the article and as the "scientist" conducting the study. When I looked into the school's website (http://witscience.org/) I could not find any faculty profiles to look into his basic biography. I don't even know what this doctor is certified in. A Google search of Dr. Franklin Forrester only brought me to this article, no other educational information was found. I finally discovered a bit more information on this article here: article. Dr. Forrester's team includes psychiatrists, doctors, and criminal psychologists. He states this research took seven years and was inspired by the Virginia Tech shootings.This article states he conducted "extensive" interviews with inmates. I wonder if he conducted case studies on each individual. Interviewing neighbors, teachers, and other caregivers as these individuals grew up. Criminals are master manipulators, especially in prison. Another disturbing bit is he has a book set to be released very soon, July 12, 2014, and the article directly gives an email address for interviews.

Second, just for grins I cracked open my own copy of the DSM-IV and my personal copy of the Black's Law Dictionary. When I looked at 299.80 Asperger's Disorder the criteria lists a need for at least two demonstrations of impaired social interaction and at least one demonstration of activities, behavior, and interests that are repetitive, restricted, and stereotyped. None of the criteria listed includes violence, the mention of violence, or the capacity to commit violent acts. I then refereed to section 301.7 Antisocial Personality Disorder aka Sociopaths/ Psychopath. The criteria for diagnosing this disorder is broken down into four areas. The very first area listed is "Aggression against people or animals", then follows property destruction, lying or theft, and serious rule violation. In fact the DSM-IV cites this behavior in children is listed as code 312.8 Conduct Disorder, which falls under the 314.9 Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Not Otherwise Specified section.

Black's Law Dictionary defines psychopath as "A person with a mental disorder characterized by an extremely antisocial personality that often leads to aggressive, perverted, or criminal behavior. The formal psychiatric term for mental illness from with a psychopath suffers is antisocial personality disorder". When I looked in Black's Law Dictionary for a definition of Aspergers I could not locate one. So I tried looking under Autism and could not find one. What does that tell me? That tells me that the Criminal Justice System does not identify those on the Autism Spectrum as being a threat.

I take specific offense to this doctor's study. I see this being a path toward listing Aspergarians as a subgroup of Sociopaths. I can tell you these groups could not be further apart in actions. A simple link between both groups exhibiting antisocial behavior is not enough to mark Aspergarians as dangerous enough to "...manage those who live with the condition and ensure a safer atmosphere for us all" as cited at the end of the Civic Tribune. I already wrote a blog about Autism and Criminal Behavior, citing a 2013 Danish study (among many others) which found that Autistic individuals have a crime rate lower than their neurotypical peers. Nine percent of those individuals involved in the Autistic community have criminal background, compared to the 18% of neurotypical individuals. In fact I go onto explain the 9% that do.

This article, I fear, will cause mass panic within the population, improperly labeling our sweet children as violent, ruthless killers. I strongly detest the Civic Tribune's call to the public to manage my son and his disability. The general public does not understand Autism or its needs and I do not want a bunch of "pseudo" professionals telling me how to manage my loved ones. My worst fear is a call for mass government control of these individuals, not just in the United States but around the world. Our government has behaved this way before and the last historical concentration camp I could find was during the 1940s, when the US imprisoned citizens during WWII for their Japanese heritage.

The bottom line is this: The diagnosis of Autism or Aspergers does not predispose an individual to violence.