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

(Paperback)

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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 obscures 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 eight autistic adult defendants 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.

Author Bio

Marie Tidball is Founding Director and Coordinator of the Oxford University Disability Law and Policy Project, UK. She is also Research Associate at Wadham College and the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, UK.