Discussion #1

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School

Southern New Hampshire University *

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210

Subject

Law

Date

Apr 3, 2024

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docx

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Uploaded by Skylarangell06

Hello, I am Skylar Angell, but most people just call me Sky. I am currently 20 years old, and I am from Salem Massachusetts. I am currently a nationally certified emergency medical technician. this is one of my final classes to get my bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with concentrations in homeland security and counterterrorism as well as in police administration and operations. with this chapter of my life ending, I am starting to look into paramedicine schools that Cataldo will pay for. after finishing paramedicine school, I would like to get a master’s degree in criminal justice. I would like to one day become a first responder as well as a college professor. during my free time, I enjoy listening to country music, especially Walker Hayes and Seth Anthony. I also really enjoy Legos, especially the technical sets and Lego City because it involves first responders. I also really enjoy learning new languages. the current languages I know are English, Spanish, German, French, American sign language, and Latin. I was learning Mandarin, but I got a little sidetracked in learning it due to personal issues. I also enjoy scrolling through Reddit. I also enjoy reading 50 pages of a book per day. I also enjoy working out as well in such activities as walking my dogs, running, calisthenics, yoga, Pilates, and meditation. I have 5 special needs rescue animals including 3 cats named Abigail, Earl Grey, and Link, 2 dogs named Dawson and Wrinkles, and a bearded dragon named Captain Jellybean. My research question is what complications do people with neurodivergence face in the criminal justice system and how can they be stopped? I chose this research topic because I am neurodivergent myself as I have dyslexia, Asperger syndrome, and other conditions that make me neurodivergent. I know that I struggle to navigate day-to-day life and I also know the amazing police officers I have had a chance to deal with like one who my dad knew as he is a sergeant who warned the other cops that were handling a case I was involved in that I was autistic and

that I might not talk to them. As well as the ones who I had a difficult time with such as the one when my mom got arrested for domestic violence and how because I had a meltdown since there was so much going on the officer assumed I could not care for myself. Then there was another time that I dealt with difficult officers when there was a group of officers bullying me because I was autistic. They had collaborated with my dad. One of them was calling me stupid and assuming the worst about me she was working with special needs children on the side of being a police officer. a career not suited for her for obvious reasons. Then the other officer’s wife threatened me with a firearm because I said that I was autistic and her son was autistic in her eyes, people on the spectrum can’t achieve as much as I have and I was making her son look bad and somehow making fun of her son despite not bringing him up at all. Then they proceeded to attempt to shove this experience under the rug so it could just be forgotten about despite me being victimized. Then they proceeded to revictimize the victim as they tried to press false charges against me that did not hold up for too long. Another officer then stated that they would get away without being charged because they were police officers and related to police officers. I wonder about the complications that people like me have faced within the criminal justice system. With these complications, I also wonder how it can be ended so that the neurodivergent community as well as the law enforcement community can come together in unison and that way there will not be any fear between the two communities. some of the other disciplines that might have information about this topic besides the criminal justice discipline are the psychology discipline because they know a lot of information about the different types of neurodivergence even though they are not experts as the only real experts of neurodiversity is the people who have the condition and at that point, they can only give information about how the disorder affects them. another discipline that might help to draw from other than that of the criminal

justice discipline is the sociology discipline. This is because it studies how different groups of people interact with the world around them. another discipline that I can draw this information from is social work as some people with autism may be collaborating with a social worker especially when it comes to a setting where they may need an advocate like that in a legal setting. The first resource I can draw from is autism and the criminal justice system. This article states that autistic people in the criminal justice system are often not allowed reasonable accommodations. "75% of autistic clients were not given reasonable adjustments during the process. Only 43% were offered an appropriate adult during police investigations, even though they had an existing diagnosis of autism. 59% of prosecution barristers and 46% of judges said or did something during the trial that made the lawyers concerned that they did not have an adequate understanding of autism. Lawyers were 7.58 times more likely to be concerned about their autistic client's effective participation in court. They were 3.83 times more likely to be concerned that their autistic clients would engage in self‐harm, compared with their nonautistic clients" (Slavny-Cross, Allison, Griffiths & Baron-Cohen, 2022). People who are neurodiverse often do not get treated fairly in the criminal justice system. Autistic people have more interactions with the police due to their higher rates of victimization and assaults. The second article is titled Does a Person’s autism play a role in their interactions with police? This article will help because it states that a person who has autistic characteristics can have an effect yet more common interaction with the police. The third article is titled Law Enforcement and Autism and why training is needed. This article states that autistic youth are more likely to be stopped by the police and questioned. People in the law enforcement community can view autistic people as suspicious due to their behaviors. There are learning guides for people with autism and their families to be able to interact with the police in a better manner. The police do not receive

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