‘You don’t know what you don’t know’: exploring practitioners’ understanding of autism and how traits associated with autism may provide the context of vulnerability to engaging in extremism and terror-related offences in the United Kingdom

Research across disciplines shows that autistic individuals are no more likely than neurotypical individuals to engage in criminal behaviour. However, emerging evidence suggests that certain autism-related characteristics may, in interaction with broader psychosocial and environmental factors, provide the context of vulnerability to offending, including extremism and terrorism-related offences. Existing scholarship has focused predominantly on convicted terrorist offenders and prison settings, with comparatively little attention paid to the Prevent (pre-offending) environment or practitioners working across the wider Criminal Justice System. This study addresses this gap by exploring practitioners’ understanding of autism and their perceptions of how autism-related characteristics may influence vulnerability to radicalisation and terrorism-related offending across both Prevent and the wider Criminal Justice System. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 United Kingdom-based practitioners who had direct professional experience of working with autistic individuals referred to Prevent for counter-terrorism concerns and/or individuals charged with extremism and terrorism-related offences. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings highlight the need for role-specific autism training, multidisciplinary collaboration, and coordinated, autism-informed safeguarding and criminal justice practice to better support autistic individuals while avoiding stigma and simplistic associations between autism and terrorism.