Perceived Remorse and Education: Their Impact on Mock Juror Judgements of Autistic Individuals

Research indicates that autistic individuals are at increased risk compared to their non-autistic peers of receiving harsher treatment and penalties when interacting with the criminal justice system. Given that remorse is highly regarded in the criminal judicial system and features strongly in comments made by adjudicative constituents when issuing proposed punishments, the present study investigated whether this harshness may be attributed to autistic people being perceived by non-autistic individuals as less remorseful. It was also investigated whether educating people about autism would moderate any mediating relationship between autism diagnosis, perceived remorse, and penalty harshness. Five autistic and five non-autistic individuals participated in video recordings and were instructed to convey remorse for two hypothetical crimes. Non-autistic participants (N = 195) were then randomly allocated one autistic video and one non-autistic video to view and asked to indicate perceived remorse and degree of appropriate penalty harshness. Participants were then educated regarding autistic characteristics and given the option to re-rate perceived remorse and penalty harshness. Results supported the hypothesis that perceived remorse would mediate the relationship between autism diagnosis and penalty harshness. Further, education resulted in a reduction on the harshness of penalty imposed, through improving perceived remorse. These results suggest that autistic individuals may be unfairly disadvantaged within the forensic setting when perceived by non-autistic individuals, due to potential difficulties or differences in displaying remorse. However, the presentation of education regarding autism may mitigate these adverse outcomes, indicating that educating decision makers on potential differences in autistic presentation may be beneficial.