It has been proposed that the ways in which the criminal justice system treats offenders with Autism spectrum condition (ASC) should duly account for how the condition influences the offenders’ behavior. While the recommendation appears plausible, what adhering to it means in practice remains unclear. A central feature of ASC is seen to be that people with the condition have difficulties with understanding and reacting to the mental states of others in what are commonly considered as adequate ways. This article aims to clarify how the difficulties affect the moral weight to be given to the good and bad motives of offending in sentencing offenders with ASC. I start by explicating the main points of departure of the endeavor. After that I assess the moral significance of the good and bad motives of offenders with ASC in view of four cases and a comparison with how we commonly treat people who are not as able to understand and react to the mental states of others as neurotypical adults. I suggest that considerations pertaining to what has been called the primary orientation of morality provide grounds for deeming the good motives of offenders with ASC as morally significant as those of otherwise similar neurotypical offenders and the bad motives of offenders with ASC as less morally significant than those of otherwise similar neurotypical offenders. After considering three possible objections to the suggestion, I conclude by briefly elucidating its purported import.

有人提议，刑事司法系统对待患有自闭症谱系条件 (ASC) 的罪犯的方式应适当考虑该条件如何影响罪犯的行为。虽然该建议看似合理，但在实践中遵守它意味着什么仍不清楚。ASC 的一个核心特征被认为是患有这种疾病的人难以以通常被认为足够的方式理解他人的精神状态并对其做出反应。本文旨在阐明困难如何影响在用 ASC 量刑罪犯时对犯罪动机的好坏的道德权重。我首先解释了这项努力的主要出发点。之后，我根据四个案例评估了 ASC 犯罪者的好坏动机的道德意义，并与我们通常如何对待那些不像神经典型的成年人那样能够理解他人的心理状态并对其做出反应的人进行比较。我认为，关于所谓的主要道德取向的考虑为认为具有 ASC 的犯罪者的良好动机与其他类似的神经典型犯罪者的道德意义一样重要，而具有 ASC 的犯罪者的不良动机在道德上不如那些具有重要意义的理由提供了依据。其他类似的神经典型罪犯。在考虑了对该建议的三种可能的反对意见之后，我最后简要说明了其声称的重要性。