Hans Asperger originally used the term “autistic psychopathy” to describe his patients on the autism spectrum, leading to
a possible confusion with psychopathic disorder and delinquent behaviour. We conducted a penal register search for 177 former
patients of Asperger’s clinic with a childhood diagnosis of “autistic psychopathy” or features of the disorder in Austria.
The mean percentage of registered convictions was similar to that in the general male population of Austria over the studied
time period. A qualitative assessment of offence types in Asperger’s former patients suggests that the nature of offences
does not differ from that in the general population. In this original cohort of Asperger’s patients, convictions were no more
common than in the general male population.
Keywords Asperger syndrome - Autistic psychopathy - Convictions - Offending