Encouraging desistance through prison-based sexual offending programmes with autistic individuals

Whilst autistic people are no more likely to engage in crime than neurotypical people, evidence has suggested that sexual crime is one of the more common forms of offending committed by the minority of autistic people that do engage in crime. Increasing evidence also suggests that autistic individuals have qualitatively different experiences of the criminal justice system compared to other neurotypes. Limited applied empirical research has investigated how prison-based rehabilitation is experienced by autistic individuals, and how best to work with those individuals during offending behaviour interventions. This talk explored how prison-based interventions to address sexual offending are experienced by autistic individuals with sexual offence convictions and the staff who work with them, and how these lived experiences can inform how we work with and support autistic people during these interventions. This presentation summarises
themes that were identified through a multi-perspective phenomenologically-informed thematic analysis of interviews with autistic individuals with sexual convictions, and prison staff involved in prison-based rehabilitation of men with sexual convictions. Themes highlight some of key issues relating to the format and delivery of offending behaviour interventions, as well as the impact of the broader context
around a programme on an individual's engagement with rehabilitation. Findings from this study have informed practical recommendations for how best to work with autistic individuals with sexual offence convictions in criminal justice interventions.