{"id":11809,"date":"2026-01-02T10:40:58","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T18:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11809"},"modified":"2026-01-02T10:40:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T18:40:58","slug":"autisms-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11809","title":{"rendered":"Autism’s Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

The news is full of stories of rampant fraud surrounding autism treatment programs. A former AUSA<\/a>, has covered it on X, noting that prosecutions have been ongoing for some time.\u00a0 But are there larger lessons to be learned?<\/p>\n

Well, one question that ought to be asked is whether there is an autism epidemic.\u00a0 It’s funny how the media operates these days.\u00a0 With President Trump in the White House, Scientific American published an article<\/a> back in April of last year that lays out many good reasons to question the numbers, given that Secretary Kennedy made autism a priority.\u00a0 It notes, correctly, that the diagnostic criteria have broadened considerably over the years.\u00a0 These changes also included allowing simultaneous diagnoses of ADHD with autism, which was previously disallowed.\u00a0 It also reports on a study<\/a> that observes a decline in the diagnosis of intellectual disability while the rates of autism soared<\/a>.\u00a0 But then there’s this:<\/p>\n

Another piece of evidence for changes in diagnosis explaining a large difference in the prevalence of autism is that autism rates vary widely from state to state in the U.S. The state with the highest prevalence of autism is California, with a rate of\u00a053.1 per 1,000 eight-year-olds, while the one with the lowest prevalence is Texas, with a rate of 9.7 per 1,000 eight-year-olds. That\u2019s a huge difference. But according to the CDC\u2019s own report, it\u2019s likely linked to California\u2019s intense push for early screening and assessment.<\/p>\n

The upshot: When the government puts money on the table, we get more of it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The news is full of stories of rampant fraud surrounding autism treatment programs. A former AUSA, has covered it on X, noting that prosecutions have been ongoing for some time.\u00a0 But are there larger lessons to be learned? Well, one question that ought to be asked is whether there is an autism epidemic.\u00a0 It’s funny how the media operates these days.\u00a0 With President Trump in the White House, Scientific American published an article back in April of last year that lays out many good reasons to question the numbers, given that Secretary Kennedy made autism a priority.\u00a0 It notes, correctly, that the diagnostic criteria have broadened considerably over the years.\u00a0 These changes also included allowing simultaneous diagnoses of ADHD with autism, which was previously disallowed.\u00a0 It also reports on a study that observes a decline in the diagnosis of intellectual disability while the rates of autism soared.\u00a0 But then there’s this: Another piece of evidence for changes in diagnosis explaining a large difference in the prevalence of autism is that autism rates vary widely from state to state in the U.S. The state with the highest prevalence of autism is California, with a rate of\u00a053.1 per 1,000 eight-year-olds, while the one with the lowest prevalence is Texas, with a rate of 9.7 per 1,000 eight-year-olds. That\u2019s a huge difference. But according to the CDC\u2019s own report, it\u2019s likely linked to California\u2019s intense push for early screening and assessment. The upshot: When the government puts money on the table, we get more of it.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mental-state","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nAutism's Crime - Crime & Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=11809\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Autism's Crime - Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The news is full of stories of rampant fraud surrounding autism treatment programs. A former AUSA, has covered it on X, noting that prosecutions have been ongoing for some time.\u00a0 But are there larger lessons to be learned? 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That\u2019s a huge difference. But according to the CDC\u2019s own report, it\u2019s likely linked to California\u2019s intense push for early screening and assessment. 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