A Financial Times investigation reveals that autism and the extremist threat is the latest problem evolving behind the scenes of Prevent, as ministers seek to stem public criticism of the counter-terrorism programme.
Increasingly, Britons being referred to Prevent are not only children, but people who are autistic. It seems that a high number of minors with neurodiversity are being swept up in a programme.
There is some consensus among forensic psychiatrists and criminal psychologists that, while people with autism and related conditions are less likely to break the law than their neurotypical peers, they may be more vulnerable to grooming and radicalisation.
This apparent trend has spread far beyond the UK, with recent cases in the US, Canada and Australia. So has the conundrum for police and intelligence professionals more used to tracking groups of adult terrorists meeting in person than responding to what some call “weaponised autism”, among teenagers recruited online.
Read the full investigation at the Financial Times.
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