Law Enforcement Officers and Autism Stigma: Changes Associated With Autism Training

Law enforcement officers (LEOs) frequently interact with autistic individuals, often without autism-specific training. Limited training may contribute to stigmatizing attitudes that influence these encounters. This study evaluated changes in LEOs' autism stigma toward autistic individuals following autism training.

A nonrandomized pre-post intervention design examined changes in autism stigma among 438 LEOs who attended autism training in California or Florida. Officers completed either a 2-h or 4-h training, with the California program including additional virtual reality training. Autism stigma was assessed before and after training using a validated measure.

Overall autism stigma decreased significantly following training. For both samples, female officers reported higher neurodiversity affirming attitudes than male officers before either training. Male officers showed significant increases in neurodiversity affirming attitudes in the California sample. For the Florida sample, officers with a relationship to an autistic person reported higher neurodiversity affirming attitudes; officers without a relationship reported greater increases in neurodiversity affirming attitudes. Item-level analyses showed both positive and unexpected changes with increased neurodiversity-affirming attitudes alongside greater endorsement of normative behavioral expectations and reduced trust in information provided by autistic individuals.

Autism-specific training was associated with increases in neurodiversity affirming attitudes with two samples of LEOs, although the absence of control groups preclude causal inference. These findings provide preliminary support for autism training as a strategy to reduce stigma and underscore the need for randomized controlled trials and longitudinal research to evaluate sustained attitudinal and behavioral change in law enforcement.