So I have been looking around the news latley for references of Aspergers and I found another person using Aspergers as an excuse for criminal behavior. Many people are well aware of the story of Gary McKinnon – The Pentagon Hacker. Well now there is a mother of a child who bombed a cafe in Exter, UK who claims her son has a mental age of a 10 year old due to Aspergers Syndrome.
So not only does Aspergers make hacking acceptable if your searching for information that your obsessive about such as UFO’s – it makes you have a ten year old mentality. I’m getting very sick of Aspergers being used as an excuse for peoples screw-ups. My life with Aspergers isnt exactly a cakewalk as it is – and then when things like this start swaying the oppinion of people it sure the heck aint gonna make it any easier.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the link. Exeter is pretty darned close to my [old] home. I’ll be interested to see how the case concludes.
Best wishes
More to the point, it’s being used as an excuse in a *really insulting* fashion. Mental age of ten. Sheesh. (And most ten year olds wouldn’t blow up a cafe, would they?)
If we were talking intelligence alone, 10 would be the ‘normal’ age for EVERYONE … because 100 is the basic score (on a general IQ test like the Stanford-Binet or the Weschler). But our intelligence is, for measuring purposes, stable for 15 and 16, so we make the transition from the child to the adult test, and adults are measured on percentiles for their age group.
And then people get confused about mental and emotional intelligence/maturity. Again, these are not fixed. And remember, these are NORMED on typically developing individuals, thus serving as a broad brush.
We all know that measuring on intelligence or behaviour alone is not a real measure of a person’s maturity; whether that is considered individually, or in relation to their peer group.
Crime is of course deviant behaviour, which would not be ‘normal’ at any age. I do not understand why ‘adult’ crimes show a ‘childish’ mentality. And 10 in Britain is the age where people start to be responsible for their crimes, at least in the miminal legal sense. Perhaps this is why, rather than reflecting any clinical or personal reality.
It doesn’t excuse your political niaevity either
If all you are worried about is your name being besmirched by association then you are on the wrong platform.
Yes some aspies do bad things, but then that does not mean they should be put on trial by you as well.
One day it will be your turn, and I wonder what you will say when the cops taser you for failing to answer there questions in an appropriate manner?
Firstly Gary does not have a mental age of 10. He was recently been diagnosed with AS which is actually a form of high intellegence, therefore he is not a child. It doesn’t justify his actions, but it explains his mental attitude towards his obsession.
Secondly this is a human rights case, if you have been free on bail for nearly 7 years and then they want to look you up in a high security prison for 60 years (as he is obviously (not) a threat to the American and English people, yer right) well doesn’t that just stink?
The argument is why are they continuing to harrass Gary and not allowing him to be trialed in his own country?
The whole thing is a cover up and the American’s bullying this man out of the embarrassment that he has caused certain officals and yes you too would have serious issues regarding your mental health after this amount of time!
Oh, good grief. Not this stuff again. Age cannot be perceived based on intelligence/behavior alone. My great-great-grandparents came from Poland to America. They never went to school, so they may have been perceived as unintelligent even though they were adults. And a grandfather of mine does a whole bunch of stuff that offends people but he doesn’t get why (even if it is totally obvious to others). I don’t really believe in judging a person’s apparent age based on these factors (intelligence/behavior). Any of you get me?
Asperger’s has become “the problem of choice” for intelligent loner criminals to claim to “have” once they get caught and are facing prison-time. That kind if opportunist and cynical claim damages the public perception of those who really do have Asperger’s. In the Exeter case, however, the lazy press reporting seems to be at fault. He doesn’t have Asperger’s – rather he is a low-IQ low-functioning autistic man.