'Maybe we just seem like easy targets': A qualitative analysis of autistic adults' experiences of interpersonal violence.
Autistic adults face routine violence tied to trusting nature and people-pleasing—safety plans must teach assertive refusal and self-protection.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Gibbs et al. (2023) talked with autistic adults about times other people hurt them.
They asked open questions and grouped the answers into themes.
The goal was to learn why the violence happened and how it felt.
What they found
Adults said they were hurt often. Traits like being too trusting or eager to please made them easy targets.
When they told someone, many people did not believe them. This disbelief made anxiety and depression worse.
How this fits with other research
Pearson et al. (2023) asked the same questions in the same year and got the same answers. Their adults also thought abuse was normal and hid their autism to stay safe. The two studies repeat each other, so we can trust the pattern.
Manning et al. (2026) talked to autistic children. Kids said school is the most unsafe place and they already mask and are bullied there. Vicki’s adults show the same story later in life, so the risk track starts young and continues.
DeNigris et al. (2018) found something that looks opposite: autistic college students who were bullied a lot later felt prouder of being autistic. The difference is age and setting. Danielle measured identity growth after chronic bullying, while Vicki and Amy captured raw stories of current violence. Both can be true: pain first, possible growth later.
Why it matters
The data say we must teach safety skills early and keep teaching into adulthood. Add lessons on saying no, spotting tricks, and deciding who to trust. Also believe clients when they report abuse and offer autistic-led support groups. Without these steps, the violence cycle will repeat.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Research has consistently shown that autistic children are more likely to be victimised than non-autistic children. More recently, studies have also found that autistic adults report experiencing more violence than non-autistic adults however the circumstances surrounding these incidents and the reasons for this are not clear. We wanted to learn more about violence during adulthood for autistic people including what led up to these incidents and what happened afterwards. We spoke to 22 autistic adults who had experienced violence and analysed what they told us to look for common themes. They told us that violence was commonplace in their own lives and in the lives of other autistic people that they know, so much so that they had even come to expect it to happen. They also talked about the negative effect these experiences had on their mental health, the way they felt about themselves and their ability to trust people. This was made worse if people did not believe them when they disclosed what had happened to them. They told us that certain autistic characteristics might make them more vulnerable like being too trusting or going along with people just to please them. They thought that some of these characteristics had been shaped by their experiences, especially being told that that their thoughts, feelings or behaviours were wrong and being pressured to change the way they behaved to 'fit in'. These findings are important in helping us to understand how to improve the personal safety of autistic people.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2023 · doi:10.1177/13623613221150375