Experiences of interpersonal victimization and abuse among autistic people

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

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Douglas, S. & Sedgewick, F. (2023). Experiences of interpersonal victimization and abuse among autistic people. Autism, 28(7), 1732-1745. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613231205630

Publication date: 16 Oct 2023 Added to AutiHub: 12 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 2 (50.0%)
  1. Sarah Douglas *
  2. Felicity Sedgewick

Abstract

Intimate partner violence and sexual assault are under-researched experiences in autistic people’s lives. Recent research, however, has shown that autistic people are more likely to have been victimized than non-autistic people. This research, therefore, sought to explore the firsthand accounts of a range of autistic people about intimate partner violence and sexual assault. Twenty-four autistic adults with lived experience (6 male, 15 female, 3 non-binary) aged 25–61 years took part in semi-structured interviews online. They were asked about their experiences of intimate partner violence and sexual assault, whether and how they felt being autistic interacted with those experiences, and what recommendations they would have for improving education in the future. Almost all participants had repeated experiences of intimate partner violence and sexual assault, regardless of gender, and there were clear similarities in their stories. Six themes with subthemes were identified. These were ‘ experiences of abuse’, ‘ autism used against you’, ‘ poor family models’, ‘ impact of/on friendships’, ‘ handling trauma’, and ‘ recommendations for future practice’. Autistic people experience many of the same patterns of abuse as non-autistic people do, but there are unique autism-related vulnerabilities and outcomes. We found that there were a variety of responses to these experiences, and call for greater understanding so that autistic victims can be better supported. Lay abstract What do we already know? Autistic people are more likely to have negative life experiences than non-autistic people, from bullying and ostracization, to being victims of crime, to unemployment and homelessness. This includes being victims of intimate partner violence, sexual assault and domestic abuse. Quantitative work has suggested that as many as 90% of autistic people experience these forms of abuse in some form during their lives, but there is little work asking them to talk about harmful relationships in their own words. What does this article add? This article reports on interviews with 24 autistic adults about their experiences of being victims of intimate partner violence, sexual assault and/or domestic abuse. Some of the themes which came from these interviews are shared with non-autistic victims, but others appeared unique to autistic people. One of these was evidence for unique autism-related vulnerabilities, as well as the impact the abuse had on their relationships long term. Participants also talked about how the sex and relationship education they had received had inadequately prepared them for adult relationships, and how this had contributed to their struggle to recognize and react to abusive behaviour. Implications for practice, research and policy Policies around intimate partner violence and sexual assault need to be updated to account for the different ways in which neurodivergent people (people whose brains process information differently from the majority) may discuss their experiences, rather than looking for ‘standard narratives’ as an indicator of a need for support. Relationship and sex education should be tailored for autistic young people to help them recognize abusive behaviours, and include how to respond to these safely. We recommend that future research tries to focus specifically on the abuse experiences of autistic men, non-binary and trans people, who have been under-represented in studies to date. In addition, much less is known about the abuse experiences of autistic people of colour or autistic people with intellectual disabilities, who also need to be actively included in these discussions.

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: 12 Sep 2026 18:20.

Cited references
36
With a DOI
36
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
0
3 / 36 (8.3%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 36 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
36 / 36 (100.0%)
Without detected author names
0
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
0
References with raw author names still to review
0
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
122
From DOI or external metadata
122
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
45 / 122 (36.9%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 77 / 122 (63.1%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
7 / 122 (5.7%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 7 / 45 (15.6%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 7 / 114 (6.1%).
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