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Half of people arrested in London may have undiagnosed ADHD, study finds (www.cam.ac.uk)
submitted 2 days ago by King@sh.itjust.works to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk
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Offering screening for neurodivergence to people detained by the police could help ensure access to appropriate support and fairer treatment in the criminal justice system, say Cambridge researchers. A study from the team suggests that one in two individuals arrested and detained in London may have undiagnosed attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and one in 20 may have undiagnosed autism.

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[-] SinAdjetivos@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago

Takeaway option one: Society does a terrible job accommodating those individuals who are any sort of neurodivergant and many laws, especially those around drug use and possession, don't actually improve society and instead primarily harm those who are most vulnerable. The takeaway here being that the laws/society are a problem that needs to be revised.

Takeaway option two: Neruodivergance = criminal and anyone with a diagnosis of ADHD/Autism/etc. should be placed under enhanced supervision as they are likely to do crime in the future. Those people are the problem and preemptive detention is the only possible solution to prevent them crime-ing all over the place.

Take a guess which direction the UK is going to go with this?

[-] krooklochurm@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

A random comment I read once on Reddit suggested that everyone who is addicted to stimulants should get checked for adhd.

Like. If you become dependent on these things it's probably because it helps adhd.

It's a random comment with no supporting evidence but I've often wondered whether there was any evidence for it.

[-] SinAdjetivos@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago

Dependence and addiction are different things. I find the story of mathematician Paul Erdős's bet on stopping amphetamines illustrates it best where he had no problem stopping but said of the experience:

"You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You've set mathematics back a month."

If you're addicted to stimulants, that's a health problem and has both poor sensitivity and selectivity for ADHD. If someone is taking stimulants and forms dependence but not addiction that is somewhat sensitive for ADHD but has terrible selectivity.

[-] NKBTN@feddit.uk 29 points 2 days ago

I think I read somewhere recently that something like £200mn spent on ADHD support would save £2bn in crime and benefits expenses.

I'm pulling those figures out of my arse btw. But it was something like that

[-] knowone@slrpnk.net 19 points 2 days ago

Don't talk about spending money early in a preventative manner that benefits society. That's illegal here. We let things get bad and end up spending way more money in a reactive way that usually brings the worst outcome. And we're proud of it

[-] Naich@lemmings.world 10 points 2 days ago

Proud of it, and we demand it. A billion pounds spent on punishment is worth a thousand spent on prevention. What are you soft on crime or something?

[-] knowone@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Not soft, not me. It's best we all suffer so that some can suffer even more than others. Now to go to the pub for the fifth time this week to bury my emotional problems. Spending on mental healthcare? Sounds like "benefits" to me

[-] tetris11@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago

The rules of a civil soceity are written one disaster at a time

[-] NKBTN@feddit.uk 5 points 2 days ago

I do hope that THIS we'll at least hire an American-owned private company to do the reactive action in an incompetent and massively overpriced way?

[-] justaman123@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Yeah I think something that doesn't get brought up in these conversations is that when we talk about how much money is being spent on something or how much could be saved specifically is that that money is going into someone's pocket and they are getting a lot of money so they obviously don't want it saved.

[-] knowone@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 days ago

Very true. The government is full of ways to funnel public money into rich people's pockets by design. And then they do their best to convince the not-rich that it's the marginalised in society that are causing pretty much all of our problems, actually

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 9 points 2 days ago

The true ADHD posting experience

[-] bottleofchips@piefed.blahaj.zone 10 points 2 days ago

TFW I’m arrested for forgetting my adhd license

[-] MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world 3 points 2 days ago

Sounds like a job for Gabor Mate…

[-] FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au -4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Those 2 things - being arrested, having ADHD - are completely irrelevant to each other. Should they also screen everyone they detain for skin cancer?

[-] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago

How do you know they’re irrelevant? Have you… done a study?

[-] Lazylazycat@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Having skin cancer doesn't immediately affect your access to fair and appropriate support through the justice system.

this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2025
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