Journal article
Interactions between Individuals on the Autism Spectrum and the Police: The Fears of Parents, Caregivers, and Professionals
POLICING-A JOURNAL OF POLICY AND PRACTICE, v 15(2), pp 950-964
Jun 2021
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Using data from a survey of parents, guardians, caregivers, and professionals, we couple qualitative coding with descriptive statistics to show how common it is for respondents to fear future police contact for the individual with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the respondents' lives and what inspires that fear. Nearly, 60% of respondents were reported being fearful of future police contact. Respondents characterized their fear in the following ways: the potential for police officers to misunderstand behaviours common amongst individuals with ASD generally and see those behaviours as non-compliance, ineffective, or difficult communication with minimally individuals with ASD and the emergence of aggressive behaviours from individuals with ASD during police contact. Respondents also expressed concern about the potential for police misuse of force. We conclude by discussing the ramifications of fear of police contact for police training as well as parents, caregivers, and individuals with ASD.
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Details
- Title
- Interactions between Individuals on the Autism Spectrum and the Police: The Fears of Parents, Caregivers, and Professionals
- Publication Details
- POLICING-A JOURNAL OF POLICY AND PRACTICE, v 15(2), pp 950-964
- Publisher
- OXFORD UNIV PRESS; OXFORD
- Number of pages
- 14
- Grant note
- We would like to thank the Autism Society of Southern Arizona and Arizona Autism Coalition for allowing us to conduct research during theirevents. Next, we also thank the following individuals for helping with data collection: Kyle Ernest, Marybeth Hoyle, Gabriel Cesar, Britta Martin, and Megan Perry. Finally, thank you to the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Solutions, particularly Cassia Spohn, Hank Fradella, and Charles Katz, for proving funding to support this study.
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Drexel University
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000733820000019
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85126026702
- Other Identifier
- 991021860756304721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Criminology & Penology