“Bullies tend to be obvious”: autistic adults perceptions of friendship and the concept of ‘mate crime’.

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Forster, S. & Pearson, A. (2019). “Bullies tend to be obvious”: autistic adults perceptions of friendship and the concept of ‘mate crime’. Disability & Society, 35(7), 1103-1123. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2019.1680347

Publication date: 22 Oct 2019 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 2 (50.0%)

Abstract

Mate crime is a specific subset of hate crime in which the perpetrator is known to the victim. The aim of the current study was to examine perceptions of friendship and the concept of mate crime in autistic adults. Five adults were interviewed about their experiences of social interactions, friendships and mate crime. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis revealed three superordinate themes: (1). Perceptions and ‘learning the formula’ (2). Socialising… ‘It’s more complicated than that’, and (3). ‘Taking Advantage of You’. Themes highlight the importance of further research into positive and negative aspects of social relationships in autistic adults, and the need to challenge attitudes around disability and provide support to those who may be socially vulnerable.

Related publications

These links indicate preprints, protocols, published versions, or related records identified in AutiHub.

Associated preprints

Preprint associated with this publication
Lived Experience of Friendship and Mate Crime in Autistic Adults
Confirmed Reliability level: High Crossref

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 17:07.

Cited references
86
With a DOI
61
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
18
7 / 86 (8.1%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
10 / 86 (11.6%)
References with detected author names
82 / 86 (95.3%)
Without detected author names
4
Without a structured title
9
Without a stable identifier
16
References with raw author names still to review
3
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
185
From DOI or external metadata
185
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
3
61 / 185 (33.0%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 124 / 185 (67.0%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
7 / 185 (3.8%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 7 / 61 (11.5%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 5 / 169 (3.0%).
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