ORIGINAL PAPER Violent Crime in Asperger Syndrome: The Role of Psychiatric Comorbidity Stewart S. Newman Æ Mohammad Ghaziuddin Published online: 1 May 2008 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008 Abstract Although several studies have suggested an association between violent crime and Asperger syndrome (AS), few have examined the underlying reasons. The aim of this review is to determine to what extent psychiatric factors contribute to offending behavior in this population. Online databases were used to identify relevant articles which were then cross-referenced with keyword searches for ‘‘violence,’’ ‘‘crime,’’ ‘‘murder,’’ ‘‘assault,’’ ‘‘rape,’’ and ‘‘sex offenses.’’ Most of the 17 publications which met the inclusion criteria were single case reports. Of the 37 cases described in these publications, 11 cases (29.7%) cases had a definite psychiatric disorder and 20 cases (54%) had a probable psychiatric disorder at the time of committing the crime. These findings underscore the role of psychiatric disorders in the occurrence of violent crime in persons with Asperger syndrome and highlight the need for their early diagnosis and treatment. Keywords Crime Á Violence Á Asperger syndrome Á Autism Á Comorbidity Introduction Asperger syndrome (AS) was first described under the title ‘‘autistic psychopathy’’ by Hans Asperger, an Austrian physician interested in the habilitation of children with behavioral problems (Asperger 1944). Fifty years after its initial description, it was introduced as a distinct category in the DSM-IV (APA 1994) and the ICD-10 (WHO 1993). At present, it is conceptualized as a variant of autism, marked by social deficits and intense focused interests in the presence of normal intelligence and relatively well- preserved communication skills. In addition, most affected persons have an odd and pedantic manner of speaking (Klin et al. 2005); and poor nonverbal communication (Wing 1981). Although its exact prevalence is uncertain, it is being increasingly recognized in children and adults. Recent figures place its prevalence rate between one and five per thousand (Chakrabarti and Fombonne 2005; Mattila et al. 2007). An interesting but controversial aspect of Asperger syn- drome is its association with violent crime. Although Asperger used the label ‘‘autistic psychopathy’’ as a stable personality style and not as an index of criminality, reports have continued to describe links between AS and violent crime. It was probably Mawson et al. (1985) who first reported an association between Asperger syndrome and violent crime. They described a 44-year-old man who had a long history of violent behavior that led to frequent admis- sions to psychiatric hospitals (Mawson et al. 1985). A few years later, Baron-Cohen (1988) described a 21-year-old man with a history of recurrent violence towards his 71-year- old girlfriend. The author speculated that while the primary cause of the patient’s violent feelings could not be ascer- tained, one factor that maintained them was his deficit in social cognition (Baron-Cohen 1988). Ghaziuddin et al. S. S. Newman University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA Present Address: S. S. Newman Private Practice, Portland, OR, USA M. Ghaziuddin (&) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA e-mail: mghaziud@umich.edu 123 J Autism Dev Disord (2008) 38:1848–1852 DOI 10.1007/s10803-008-0580-8