Brief Report: Autism in the Courtroom: Experiences of Legal Professionals and the Autism Community.
Courts in England and Wales currently fail autistic witnesses and defendants—routine autism training and formalized accommodations are urgently needed.
01Research in Context
WhatWhat this study did
The team sent short surveys to three groups: judges, lawyers, and autistic people plus their families.
They asked about real court cases in England and Wales.
Each person told one story about how the court treated an autistic witness or defendant.
What they found
Every group said the same thing: courts do not understand autism.
Judges and lawyers admitted they had no training.
Autistic people said they were not given needed breaks, clear language, or quiet rooms.
How this fits with other research
Jänsch et al. (2014) looked at all earlier studies and found no proof that autistic people break laws more often.
That older review warned the data were weak; Bassett-Gunter et al. (2017) now shows why the data stay weak—courts are failing to record or support autistic users.
Bitsika et al. (2020) and Green et al. (2020) asked autistic adults in Australia and elsewhere about police stops and got the same unhappy answers.
Burleigh et al. (2025) ran mock trials and proved the bias: jurors who got no autism training gave harsher punishments to autistic defendants.
Together, these papers show the problem is real, wide, and fixable with training.
Why it matters
If you serve as an expert witness or write court reports, you can ask for simple fixes.
Request breaks every 30 minutes, plain-word questions, and a quiet waiting area.
These small changes, backed by the new research, can stop autistic clients from shutting down or looking guilty when they are not.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Online surveys were used to sample the views of judges, barristers and solicitors (n = 33) about their engagement with autistic individuals in criminal courts in England and Wales. Despite an understanding of some of the difficulties experienced by individuals with autism, and the adjustments suitable for supporting them, legal professionals reported constraints arising from a lack of understanding by others within the criminal justice system. These results are considered alongside the views and perspectives of autistic adults (n = 9) and parents of children on the autism spectrum (n = 19), who had encountered the criminal courts as witnesses or defendants and were largely dissatisfied with their experiences. Training, understanding and the provision of appropriate adjustments were identified as key issues by all respondent groups.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2017 · doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3162-9