The University of Cumbria has received £70,000 in funding from the CRH Charitable Trust towards ‘a unique research project’ which will investigate the issues of autism and the criminal justice system.
As part of the project, the university will work with ‘Cumbria Reducing Offending Partnership Trust’ (CROPT) and its ‘Triple A – All About Autism’ project. The two organisations’ two-year research initiative will ‘seek to change clinical practice within Cumbria, receive national recognition via publication of any findings, and lay foundations for more formalised means of support’. The project uniquely combines the university’s academic and educational experience with CROPT’s knowledge of autism community needs.
Initially, the research will focus on ‘identifying barriers within the criminal justice system faced by people with autism, and which interventions are helpful or should be avoided in supporting people with the condition’. The University said: “The research will go on to form the basis for informed interventions that aim to reduce the number of individuals on the autism spectrum coming into destructive, avoidable, and unnecessary conflict with figures of authority.”
There are currently around 700,000 people UK-wide on the autism spectrum; including their families, this means around 2.8 million individuals experience the condition daily. The National Autistic Society has already highlighted the high risk of autistic people coming into contact with the criminal justice system.
Dr Louise Nelson, head of Nursing, Health and Professional Practice at the University of Cumbria, said: “We are delighted to be working with our partners in supporting this research, looking at identifying barriers within the criminal justice system faced by people with autism. It adds value for us, particularly to our learning disability and autism programmes.”