OBJECTIVE Defense attorneys sometimes suggest that social-cognitive difficulties render autistic individuals vulnerable to involvement in crime, often arguing that theory of mind (ToM) difficulties that undermine inferences about others' intentions underpin this vulnerability. We examined autistic adults' ability to respond adaptively to criminal intent during interactions and whether difficulties were associated with poor ToM. HYPOTHESES Compared with nonautistic adults, autistic adults were expected to be less likely to respond adaptively to another's criminal intent and less likely to do so early in interactions, with poorer performance associated with ToM difficulties. METHOD We developed the Suspicious Activity Paradigm, in which autistic (n = 102) and nonautistic (n = 95) adults listened (as if participating in an interaction) to audio scenarios in which cues suggesting their impending involvement in a crime gradually emerged. At periodic intervals, they were required to indicate how they would react toward the other person's behavior, with response coding reflecting detection of, and adaptive responding to, suspicious activity. RESULTS We observed similar patterns of suspicion and adaptive responses in autistic and nonautistic adults as the scenarios progressed. Regardless of diagnostic status, pronounced ToM difficulties and low verbal ability were independently associated with a lower likelihood of reporting suspicion and responding adaptively. CONCLUSIONS Our results do not support the perspective that autistic adults are uniquely vulnerable to crime involvement due to an inability to recognize and respond adaptively to suspicious behavior. The potential for heightened criminal vulnerability was associated with significant ToM difficulties (and verbal ability) regardless of autism diagnostic status, although such difficulties were more prevalent in the autistic sample. The finding that pronounced ToM difficulties may heighten criminal vulnerability for both autistic and nonautistic individuals challenges the validity of a generalized "autism" legal defense based on assumed rather than measured ToM difficulties. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

---

检测社交互动中的犯罪意图：自闭症和心理理论的影响。


客观辩护律师有时认为，社会认知困难使自闭症患者容易参与犯罪，他们经常认为，心理理论（ToM）困难会破坏对他人意图的推断，从而加剧了这种脆弱性。我们研究了自闭症成年人在互动过程中对犯罪意图做出适应性反应的能力，以及困难是否与不良 ToM 有关。假设 与非自闭症成年人相比，自闭症成年人预计不太可能对他人的犯罪意图做出适应性反应，也不太可能在互动中尽早做出反应，与 ToM 困难相关的表现较差。方法 我们开发了可疑活动范式，其中自闭症（n = 102）和非自闭症（n = 95）成年人聆听（仿佛参与互动）音频场景，其中逐渐出现暗示他们即将参与犯罪的线索。他们被要求定期表明他们将如何对其他人的行为做出反应，反应编码反映了对可疑活动的检测和适应性反应。结果随着场景的进展，我们在自闭症和非自闭症成年人中观察到类似的怀疑和适应性反应模式。无论诊断状态如何，明显的 ToM 困难和低语言能力与报告怀疑和适应性响应的较低可能性独立相关。结论 我们的结果并不支持以下观点：自闭症成年人由于无法识别和适应性地应对可疑行为而特别容易卷入犯罪。 无论自闭症诊断状态如何，犯罪脆弱性增加的可能性都与显着的 ToM 困难（和语言能力）相关，尽管此类困难在自闭症样本中更为普遍。明显的 ToM 困难可能会增加自闭症和非自闭症个体的犯罪脆弱性，这一发现挑战了基于假定而非测量的 ToM 困难的广义“自闭症”法律辩护的有效性。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。