I hear you on this. As always, there is a tendency to view all crime and criminals as "not the fault of the perpetrator, they were just misunderstood".
However, I don't think this article was suggesting we give people a pass, more that we need to think about how we handle some people's actions in light of what we know about neurodiversity. If we are locking people up partly to punish them and partly to prevent both them and others repeating that behaviour, then the people concerned have to understand what they've done wrong.
Does Brandon understand that he's done the wrong thing here? Would other neurodivergent people understand? If not, what should we do differently?
Agree that prison is not the right solution, also agree that there have to be some consequences. Autistic or not, giving people a free pass on anti-social behavior will result in more harm down the road, and not the least to the, in this case, autistic person.
However, I don't think this article was suggesting we give people a pass, more that we need to think about how we handle some people's actions in light of what we know about neurodiversity. If we are locking people up partly to punish them and partly to prevent both them and others repeating that behaviour, then the people concerned have to understand what they've done wrong.
Does Brandon understand that he's done the wrong thing here? Would other neurodivergent people understand? If not, what should we do differently?