How Certain Features of Autism Spectrum Disorder can Provide the Context of Vulnerability to Engaging in Online and Offline Sexual Offending

Presented by Dr Clare Allely
Thurs 17^th Nov 2022 – 11.00am to 2:00pm over Zoom    

There is a real need for the identification and understanding of how the innate vulnerabilities which are associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can provide the context of vulnerability to engaging in offline and online sexual offending to be recognised in criminal law. In this presentation we will explore how certain features of ASD can provide the context of vulnerability to engaging in sexual offending including hands on related sexual offending as well as the viewing of indecent child imagery (IIOC). It will also include a number of case studies and explore some of the features of ASD in the individuals which contributed or played a role in their sexual offending.

The workshop will be live via zoom and will include Q&A sessions.

Dr. Clare Allely is a Professor of Forensic Psychology at the University of Salford in England and is an affiliate member of the Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre at Gothenburg University, Sweden. She is also an Associate of The Children’s and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ) at the University of Strathclyde. Clare is also an Honorary Research Fellow in the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences affiliated to the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow. Clare is a Chartered Member of British Psychological Society (CPsychol since 2013) and Associate Fellow of British Psychological Society (AFBPsS since 2013). Clare’s research specialises in how certain features of autism spectrum disorder may provide the context of vulnerability to engaging in a wide range of offending behaviours including: lone-actor terrorism or terroristic behaviours, internet-facilitated sexual offending (e.g., the viewing of indecent child imagery), mass shootings, school shootings, hands-on sexual offending, cybercrime, stalking, violence, zoophilia and arson. She also acts as an expert witness in criminal cases involving defendants with autism spectrum disorder. In her research, Clare also specialises in the pathway to intended violence in extreme acts of violence such as mass shootings.

She is author of the book “The Psychology of Extreme Violence: A Case Study Approach to Serial Homicide, Mass Shooting, School Shooting and Lone-actor Terrorism” published by Routledge in 2020 and author of the book “Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Criminal Justice System: A Guide to Understanding Suspects, Defendants and Offenders with Autism” published by Routledge in 2022.

Tickets cost £25

To book, please email:  info@stsacorg.uk

Online Pornography and Neuroscience Masterclass

Presented by Dr Glyn Hudson-Allez   
Sat 22nd October 2022  –  9.00am to 12.00pm over Zoom

Why are so many men, in loving adult relationships, many with children, being arrested for watching indecent images of children online?   What predisposes them to commit such an offence, and what are the neurological processes that precipitate online pornography addiction? Are they all covert paedophiles, or is something else going on?

This talk looks at this ubiquitous issue and overviews the neuroscience of attachment and traumatic childhood experiences that predisposes (predominantly) men to offend online. It also discusses the victim-perpetrator cycle of transgenerational transmission. Is it a myth or is real? In a synthesis of neuroscience, developmental, and social psychology this masterclass offers a fresh perspective as to the reasons that may precipitate some individuals into online sexual offending.

The workshop will be live via zoom and will provide an interaction between dyadic learning and Q&A sessions.

The aims of the Masterclass are:

• To elaborate on neural structures and the concept of addictive pathways.

• To have a clear understanding between the addictive process of ‘wanting’ as opposed to ‘liking’.

• To link Bowlby’s concept of attachments into the neural pathways and to discuss how trauma and adverse childhood experiences can predispose individuals into addictive self-soothing behaviours.

• To highlight how past events can reoccur through the process of repetition compulsion.

• To link this understanding into the therapist’s own way of working

Glyn Hudson-Allez has a BSc (Hons) and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Bristol, and an MSc in Applied Forensic Psychology from the University of Leicester. She is a Psychosexual Therapist on the College of Sexual and Relationship Therapists (COSRT) Supervisory Register, and works with individuals, couples and supervisees. Glyn has two Fellowships: from The Association of Counsellors & Psychotherapists in Primary Care (CPC), and The College of Sexual and Relationship Therapists (COSRT). She is also a Supervisor Trustee of The Specialist Treatment Organisation for the Prevention of Sexual Offending (StopSo)

In her clinical work, Glyn specialises in working with people with sexual diversity issues, online internet addiction, and those who have been charged with a sexual offense and became an expert witness in court procedures.

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