RT Article
T1 Life-Course Theory on the Spectrum: Autism, Neurodiversity, and the Boundaries of Developmental Criminology
JF Journal of developmental and life-course criminology
VO 11
IS 1
SP 177
OP 197
A1 Alvarez, Gabriel
LA English
YR 2025
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1949547418
AB Life-course criminology (LCP) provides a powerful framework for understanding the timing, sequencing, and temporal structuring of criminal behavior, yet its core concepts—turning points, social bonds, and cumulative disadvantage—are implicitly grounded in neurotypical experiences of developmental time. This paper examines how these assumptions limit LCP’s applicability to autistic individuals, whose pathways into adulthood are shaped by structural barriers, institutional misrecognition, and adaptive strategies rather than elevated offending. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, the paper highlights three key divergences: (1) conventional turning points like marriage and employment often occur on different timelines, in different forms, or not at all; (2) social bonds form through nontraditional pathways such as caregiving and online communities; and (3) cumulative disadvantage emerges through institutional exclusion and surveillance rather than early delinquency. Rather than discarding LCP, the paper argues for its expansion to include diverse temporalities, non-normative turning points, alternative bonding structures, and structural adaptations like masking and system avoidance. By explicitly theorizing temporal variation in development, these revisions strengthen LCP’s ability to explain how surveillance, harm, and life trajectories unfold across differently structured timelines, enhancing the theory’s inclusivity, empirical precision, and ethical relevance for capturing the full spectrum of human development.
K1 autism spectrum disorder
K1 Life course criminology
K1 Neurodiversity
K1 Structural inequality
K1 Turning points
DO 10.1007/s40865-025-00282-9