When a disproportionate number of blacks are in prison for drug charges, there is a huge outcry. People march in the streets saying “Black lives matter!” What many do not realize is that there is also a disproportionate number of autistics in prison for certain crimes. No one marches in the street when that happens. One crime that we see many autistics in prison for is child pornography. Autistics only comprise one to two percent of society, yet half the people in prison for that crime have some form of autism.
Let me explain what child pornography is. It is the images of underage people in sexual displays. It is pictures or videos of minors being inappropriately sexually dealt with. In essence, it is pictures of a crime. For no other crime is it illegal to possess pictures of it, and we already have many public images of murder scenes, people being murdered, and terrorist attacks happening. So why should images of sex crimes be illegal? Even when possessing images of other crimes is illegal, for no crime are the enforcement or penalties as severe as for child pornography.
Autistics are often attracted to minors simply because they are more on their social development level. They also often have OCDs that cause them to seek out certain things in large amounts and fetishes that cause them to have unusual interests. All this makes them ripe for consuming child pornography. However, autistics are NOT any more likely to molest children in person than the general population is. In fact, they are less likely to do so. Any sex with another person involves touching that the autistics often have an aversion to. Sexual relationships and trafficking involve social skills that autistics often do not have. Yet when it comes to child pornography- possessing IMAGES of people in sexual performances- we are willing to lock them up for years even if they are otherwise completely harmless to society.
Child pornography might be disgusting, but locking up harmless autistics in an environment much better suited for dangerous criminals than for autistics with sensitivity issues is all the more disgusting. Many judges themselves have acknowledged that the defendants standing before them who have committed these acts are otherwise harmless, but they are willing to sacrifice an autistic person just so they can teach society a lesson. If you are going to put someone in jail, put someone who has actually molested someone. Put someone who is actually a danger to society. Don’t put someone with a disability who merely looked at images just to teach other people a lesson.
People have told me not to talk about this subject. They said it could make me sound like a pervert. However, I do need to talk about this. When an injustice happens to my people, in this case the autistic community, I need to address it. It is the taboo of speaking out against this that enables lawmakers to enact ever stricter laws that put people in prison for longer terms, and that enables judges to give out these punishments. Because people have talked about overly harsh penalties for drug use among drug addicts, these penalties have been relaxed and drug addicts are dealt with more humanely now. It is time we do the same with pornography addicts, no matter how uncomfortable people feel talking about this subject.
The Aspergeric Free Spirit 