Aspergers

[MarillionFan]

OK. Who else has got it?

First Gary, now this fella Hack charge teen Cleary 'is autistic' | The Sun |News

Seems a bloody good way to try and get out of situations. I think I may go round saying I'm Bipolar so I can get away with lamping people in pubs and being abusive at work.

I reckon he's just another geeky developer who sits in his bedroom at night watching porn.

Lot of tosh if you if ask me. Or is it?

[minestrone]

Defo a real condition but easily faked as you can get some dosh from the government.

I think Gary had a different case as there was no malicious intent, it looks like (innocent until proven otherwise) this guy had interest otherwise.

[centurian]

Practically any form of human behaviour could be pigeon holed into a "condition" if you have enough shrinks looking for a Phd thesis / make their name publishing a paper.

The problem is that this "condition" is being used as an excuse/free pass for what is clearly criminal behavour.

I think Gary had a different case as there was no malicious intent

In Gary's own words...

US foreign policy is akin to Government-sponsored terrorism these days … It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand down on September 11 last year … I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels …

Not exactly a benign statement, is it.

[PRC1964]

It's real enough. One of my sons has it. The way he is compared to his siblings is that when they are up to something and are caught they know how to blame the others/make it look like it wasn't them or make a joke of it. He doesn't have that "get out of jail" gene in him so he always gets caught, and blamed.

He takes everyone as the same. He will trust a door to door salesman as much as he trusts me. He just can't understand that people deceive and manipulate him just because they can.

I can quite understand how an Aspergers child could get talked into the position where they are the front for illegal acts, in fact they would probably be the ones who came up with the way of doing it to help out a person who they believe has been friendly to them. The way my son thinks and visualises the world is so different from how I do that he often finds ways around rules or problems that he encounters that would never have occurred to a non Aspergers child.

It's quite possible that Cleary did break the law, but if he really has Aspergers then he is almost certainly the fall guy who was told to do it by someone else.

[EternalOptimist]

It's real enough. One of my sons has it. The way he is compared to his siblings is that when they are up to something and are caught they know how to blame the others/make it look like it wasn't them or make a joke of it. He doesn't have that "get out of jail" gene in him so he always gets caught, and blamed.

He takes everyone as the same. He will trust a door to door salesman as much as he trusts me. He just can't understand that people deceive and manipulate him just because they can.

I can quite understand how an Aspergers child could get talked into the position where they are the front for illegal acts, in fact they would probably be the ones who came up with the way of doing it to help out a person who they believe has been friendly to them. The way my son thinks and visualises the world is so different from how I do that he often finds ways around rules or problems that he encounters that would never have occurred to a non Aspergers child.

It's quite possible that Cleary did break the law, but if he really has Aspergers then he is almost certainly the fall guy who was told to do it by someone else.

Thats very interesting PRC. Do you think the law should be applied equally across the board? should your son be treated the same as his brother, or should the law make an exception ?
or is it up to the judge to see mitigating circumstances

[minestrone]

Thats very interesting PRC. Do you think the law should be applied equally across the board? should your son be treated the same as his brother, or should the law make an exception ?
or is it up to the judge to see mitigating circumstances

Well soldiers have been using the "I was traumatised by war, please do not jail me for killing him" line for years.

[PRC1964]

Thats very interesting PRC. Do you think the law should be applied equally across the board? should your son be treated the same as his brother, or should the law make an exception ?
or is it up to the judge to see mitigating circumstances

I think the law is the law. If you break it there are consequences that you must face. I also believe that where a person has been coerced into a situation where they will take the for blame for others who will get away with it that the judge should be given the power to reflect that in their judgement. There are as you well know very manipulative people out there. My job is to try and teach a child who has absolutely no concept of mind games to know when to trust someone and when not to.

Don't get me wrong though, when my son does wrong, he is as much to blame as any other person. But yet... I'm guilty of having a bit of admiration for the look of innocence on the face of a boy with a face covered in chocolate who swears they never took a bite from the cake. My son will take the blame, or even worse just go silent and refuse to answer questions even if he had nothing to do with it. He makes himself look guilty while his brothers know how to look innocent.

[minestrone]

How much do you get PRC1964 based upon your child's diagnosis?

[Fred Bloggs]

I also have a child with Aspergers. What PRC states is absolutely spot on. It would be exceptionally easy to coerce a child who suffers this condition into doing something wrong as an Asperger sufferer does tend to take everything they are told literally at face value. It is also a typical trait that many Asperger sufferers are extremely gifted mathematically and logically. I am not at all surprised that an Asperger sufferer can be a very competent hacker. What I would say is that it is also a typical Asperger trait that a suffer is typically one who has to understand structure, routine and rules hence a typical sufferer tends to be very scrupulous about law breaking. I would expect that any malicious intent stands a very high chance of being as a result of coercion by a person who has built a trusting relationship with the sufferer and exploited that relationship. I worry greatly that such a thing could happen to our child. I know that doesn't make it right but it is very probable. I can also detect a significant degree of scepticism in several posts here and I can assure you that it is a very real condition and can be quite a dibilitating condition if the sufferer is badly affected. I don't suppose for a single nano second that what I say will make any difference to those posters but for those with a less closed mind I hope that gives a little insight.

[MarillionFan]

Fred. I can accept the fact that there is a condition, what I cannot accept is yours and prcs point that the person has to be coerced by someone else to do the crime and therefore they are not responsible.

It seems that by saying someone has Aspergers than it means that they are not responsible. It is also being stated that they cannot tell the difference between right and wrong and that if they do something wrong they have been coerced.

I think in both cases, both hackers did it for their own reasons. Aspergers is not a
defence or excuse
for mitigation.