A number of years ago as I sat on a bustling Glasgow bus on the way home
from work, I realized with a jolt that I had missed my stop to catch the
second bus on my journey. No, I had not missed my stop because darkness
had fallen and I could not see where I was, nor had I fallen into a deep,
dribble-inducing slumber; instead I had been too deeply engrossed in a
book to realize where I was or have any awareness of anything going on
around me. The book in question was The Autism Spectrum, Sexuality
and the Law: What Every Parent and Professional Needs to Know. It was
in this book that I first encountered the brave and inspirational young
autistic man, Nick Dubin. In collaboration with Isabelle Hénault and Tony
Attwood, Nick gave a deeply insightful, personal, and groundbreaking
account of his experiences when he found himself suddenly caught up
in the criminal justice system following an arrest for possession of child
pornography. Despite my psychological qualifications coupled with my
understanding and research in the field of autism, when I first grasped this
book, I have to be honest, I was somewhat skeptical. Could some of the
key symptomology of autism really provide the context for vulnerability
to engaging in the possession of child pornography? If so, to what extent?
Can an autistic individual who downloads child pornography really have
no appreciation that what they are doing is wrong?