In The Politics of Autism, I write:
People with disabilities are victims of violent crime three times as often as people without disabilities. The Bureau of Justice Statistics does not report separately on autistic victims, but it does note that the victimization rate is especially high among those whose disabilities are cognitive. A small-sample study of Americans and Canadians found that adults with autism face a greater risk of sexual victimization than their peers. Autistic respondents were more than twice as likely to say that had been the victim of rape and over three times as likely to report unwanted sexual contact.
Previous posts have discussed parents who have killed or tried to kill their ASD children. One victim was named Jude Mirra. His killer -- his mother -- is now dead, too.
A pharma millionaire who was convicted of manslaughter of her eight-year-old autistic son in 2014 was found dead in her home, hours after the Supreme Court revoked her bail.
Gigi Jordan, 62, was discovered dead around 12.30am on Friday at her apartment in Stuyvesant Heights, Brooklyn. The police are investigating the death as suspected suicide.
Jordan was convicted of manslaughtering her son Jude Mirra in February 2010 in a room of Peninsula Hotel in Manhattan. She gave her autistic son a deadly cocktail of painkillers, speeling pills, and tranquilisers mixed with juice and alcohol before she attempted to take her own life.
Her prosecutors argued that she killed him because he was emotionally disturbed and Jordan testified that he had been traumatised after being sexually abused by his biological father, Emil Tzekov, her second husband.
She was sentenced to 18 years in jail in 2015. However, her conviction for manslaughter charges was overturned in 2020 due to a procedural misstep.
