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Disabling Criminal Justice: The Governance of Autistic Adult Defendants in the English Criminal Justice System

Disabling Criminal Justice: The Governance of Autistic Adult Defendants in the English Criminal Justice System

Author: Marie Tidball
Publisher: Hart Publishing
ISBN: 9781509956982

Published In: September 2025
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Hardback Edition ISBN: 9781509956944

List Price: HKD 558.87

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Description
Contents

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This book considers the governance of autistic defendants and offenders in the UK courts.

Utilising the social model of disability, it considers the dominant strategies of governance, including 'vulnerability', which the author argues obscure the rights of disabled people in the criminal justice system. In doing so it sheds light on how this group should be governed.

Drawing on rigorously-researched case studies of autistic adult defendants through the court process, the book brings together relevant legal and policy literature, criminological and criminal justice theory and disability studies to provide insight into the 'dividing practices' that affect the governance of disabled defendants' conduct.

Using interviews with elites and practitioners, textual analysis, and court observation of 8 adult defendants with autism through their court process, the book investigates why the status of autistic defendants as disabled under the Equality Act 2010 has been overlooked in criminal justice policy and criminal court decision-making.

It explores the impact of the 'collateral' effects and 'symbiotic harm' of the criminal justice process on family members who support these defendants through the criminal justice process.

1. Introduction: Autism, Criminality and the Criminal Justice System

2. Qualitative Methods and Inclusive Research Participation

Part 1: How Should Adult Defendants with Autism be Governed?

3. Disabling Criminal Justice: Developing a Theoretical Toolkit

Part 2: Strategies of Governance: Adult Defendants with Autism and the Policy Context

4. Disability vs Vulnerability in Liaison and Diversion

5. Where's Criminal Justice? The Autism Act 2009 and Related Policy

Part 3: Technologies of Governance: Criminal Court Practice

6: Pre-trial Shaping: The Police, the Crown Prosecution Service and Decision to Prosecute

7. To What Ends Are They Governed? Negotiating the Courtroom, Remand and Plea

8. Dividing Practices in Case Disposal: Aggravating and Mitigating Factors, Conviction and Sentence

9. Governance through the Family: Collateral Impact and 'Symbiotic Harm' for Defendants' Families