Autism & moral responsibility
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
[On January 28th 2009, a young man named Sky Walker beat his mother to death. She was a professor at Kent State University and had previously written a public article about having to cope with Sky’s aggressive behavior. The dilemma here is that Sky Walker was a young man with Autism. Autism is not normally associated with violence and aggression, but as with any other legal case that involves a mental deficit, there is the question of whether a court can hold the accused at the same standard of accountability as the reasonable person.]