There is an ongoing court case in which a British teenager recently diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome hacked into United States Military Computers and allegedly disabled several national security measures. In his fight for extradition it seems as though the fact he has Aspergers Syndrome was used as an attempt to lessen his consequences.
My question is how does having Aspergers Syndrome make it so that a person can not tell that hacking military computers is illegal? If I get pulled over for speeding can I fight the speeding ticket because I have Aspergers Syndrome?
I can see there are going to be several people that are going to want my head for saying this, but using Aspergers Syndrome as a legal defense for lessening what you did wrong in criminal court is sickening. You do the crime, you pay the time.
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Well, having aspergers myself I can probably help out a bit here. Having aspergers is in itself, a developmental disorder of the brain. This means we aspies cannot understand how other people might feel about what we do. The man in question did not see hacking into the system as a crime, he was just trying to find proof of alien existence because he was curious. If he had done it deliberately because he wanted to blow up a building and kill everyone, sure, he should be tried because he wanted to hurt people and he’s a danger. But in this case, he didn’t. Plus, people on the autistic spectrum or who have aspergers, are more at risk of developing psychotic symptoms because we’re so misunderstood. I for example, have violent tendencies towards people tell me theres nothing wrong with me. I have been put in prison, admittedly, only for two days, but it was the worst time of my life, and yes, I would have killed myself after a week or so. My brain cannot cope with stress as well as ”normal” people can. So, if the guy is put in prison for this, he’s quite likely to go insane and perhaps even commit suicide. Plus, it’ll just show that the world isn’t actually any more understanding of developmental disorders or mental illness, just that the media is recognising it more.
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“he was just trying to find proof of alien existence because he was curious.”
You sure?
http://www.aspieweb.net/aspergers-as-a-legal-defense/comment-page-1/#comment-470 says:
“I’m not unsympathetic to his plight Larry; but I’ve just read the inditement [sp?], He wasn’t just looking around, he was installing remote control software, deleting logs and accounts, and leaving “F-ck the Yanks” graffiti as well as direct threats to continue disrupting the networks. And this happened over months and months.”
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“…5) issues around ‘touching’ and personal boundaries (in both directions),
“6) issues in which typical autistic actions are taken to be ‘harassing’ or ‘offensive’ to non-autistic people (because of their intolerance and ignorance)…”
Check out http://tinyurl.com/yf2dqfc :
“…Alek, I just want to second what Mina said about women having, for our own safety, to be sensitive to creepy vibes from men. For a while there was a janitor in my office who was, well, creepy. I suspect he has some form of mild retardation, but the fact is, he never did to the men what he did to the women; he would come up behind me way too close and start talking right in my ear; he would wander into my female colleagues’ offices and sit down even if they were in the middle of working; he would insert himself into conversations between women. And there was something else…an undefinable but creepy vibe.
“Now, maybe he’s just socially awkward. But what if he’s not? If he doesn’t follow social norms about how close to stand how do I know if he’ll follow social norms about touching? If he follows me down the hall when I’ve given off clear signals that I don’t want him to, where else will he follow me?
“I’d rather be rude than be followed; I’d rather be rude than be groped; I’d rather be rude than be assaulted…”
I bet you’d call her “intolerant” and “ignorant” too. Personally, I’d rather be what you call “intolerant” and “ignorant” than let just anyone do just anything and everything he or she wants to do to my body just in case he or she is autistic.
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My brother has Asperger’s and is being manipulated by a criminally minded neuro-typical “friend”. In the past, he has gone to jail as the fall guy for various crimes. Now, they seem to have moved on to identity theft scams. I fear that he will end up in jail again, while his “friend” gets away with it all. Are there any resources I can use to help my brother? Are there any ways I can have the police or DA stop this abuse by his “friend”?
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