This blog was originally written for PolicyBristol, which can be found here
After the release, and subsequent reaction to the Netflix series Adolescence, we checked in with the convenor of the Serious Violence Prevention Academic Hub, Dr Jade Levell, to get her thoughts on how ‘Adolescence’ fits into the broader debate around serious youth violence, what the reaction can tell us, and what it might mean going forward.
The Growing Focus on Masculine Vulnerability and Violence
Over the past decade, academics, policymakers and violence practitioners have been increasingly focussed on the relationship between masculinity, vulnerability and violence. It has become clear that we will not prevent violence by focusing just on victim support alone. To try and prevent violence we need to intervene early with boys. Adolescence has created a cultural moment, creating an enhanced focus on masculinities and boyhood in contemporary society.
Online Radicalisation: The Dark Side of Digital Spaces
Adolescence shone a light on the ways in which online spaces can radicalise young people. It hinted at the lack of understanding adults have of the digital worlds of teenagers. This has been recently picked up by the Police in the UK, with Maggie Blyth, the police national lead for VAWG, recently highlighting the reach of Andrew Tate and the ‘radicalisation of young people online’. Concerns about ‘the manosphere’ abound. Online misogynists exploit boys’ pain and manipulate them to blame women for it.
It is important to remember though, that despite Tate and co reaching boys in the virtual world, their alleged crimes are very much in person. Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are still facing unresolved charges of human trafficking and forming an organised group to sexually exploit women and rape. It is vital for us to keep in mind that boys are being impacted by these role models both off and online. It can be easy to blame the faceless internet for radicalising boys, but harder to face up to the impact of negative role models in positions of power.
The Centre for Social Justice released a report this month, ‘Lost Boys: State of the Nation’, They focused on a range of areas where boys are disadvantaged, including employment, education, ‘families and fathers’, crime, health, and tech and pornography. It is notable though that at the start of the report they assert, ‘half of Britons say women’s equality has gone ‘far enough’’. Pitching boys’ masculinity challenges as being somehow caused by girl’s rights and equality is arguably one of the subtle messages than the ‘manosphere’ would agree with. It is essential to remember that although girls may be achieving academically, rates of violence against girls and women are as high as ever.
Since the report was released the headline that, ‘Boys are now more likely to own a smartphone than to live with their dad’, has gained traction. However, this leaves a huge blind spot around boys who live with violent, aggressive and neglectful fathers. In Adolescence, the father is portrayed as present and supportive, yet there were mentions of his use of aggression at home which were left unexamined, and a lack of emotional intimacy with his son. Fatherhood is more than being present; many boys are learning about gender inequality from their parents own relationships first. The series has inspired a debate about missing positive role models for boys, but until we are effectively supporting children who live with violent men, our efforts will arguably not reach those most ‘at risk’.
Gender-Based Violence: A Missing Element in the discussion
Perhaps the point missing from most commentary is that ‘Adolescence’ was also about Gender-Based violence. In all of the furore about boyhood that has come, there has been curiously little empathy about the lived realities of girls who are now navigating the threat of violence. 14-year old girls are reporting rape more than any other age group in the UK. Arguably, it is irrelevant if girls are now over-achieving in schools and workplaces, if the visceral threat they feel of male violence is getting ever younger and ever-present. The scene where ‘Jade’ assaulted Jamie’s friend Ryan is the only nod in the series to the wider impact of girls in the school whose sense of safety would have been shattered. I wonder, why has this series not sparked conversations about girlhood in the face of such unpredictable violence? Well, perhaps, we are just used to it.
Interestingly, if this was a real case, it would have been dealt with under the strategic framework of Serious Violence/ ‘knife crime’ rather than ‘Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)’. Currently, under the Serious Violence Duty local areas can decide whether VAWG is considered ‘serious violence’ in their local areas. This series can help illustrate how such siloed thinking doesn’t help. We need to integrate an understanding of masculinities in all our conversations about boy’s perpetration of violence, whether the victims are girls or other boys. ‘Gender-Based Violence’ can no longer be in the shadows of a dominant focus on so-called ‘Serious Violence’.
Adults need to be responsible for solving childhood violence
The writer of Adolescence, Jack Thorne, has called for ‘radical action’. He noted, ‘there’s a crisis happening in our schools, and we need to think about how to stop boys from harming girls, and each other… That’s going to take a mass of different things to facilitate in schools and in homes, and that requires government help’.
Keir Starmer hosted a roundtable to discuss Adolescence yesterday (31/04). Headlines were drawn to the decision to make Adolescence available to all schools in the UK to show to pupils. Although I wonder if anyone has considered the impact on girls of watching a show which is essentially about a girl’s violent death; but she is voiceless and invisible in the narrative. This risks supporting the wider societal ideas that boys disadvantage leading to perpetration matters more than girl’s victimisation. This is not a zero-sum game. For me, Adolescence highlighted that fact that it is adults who need to take responsibility for children’s violence and find a way to reach them. We risk asking children to educate themselves, with the aid of profit-making TV media, leaving a gaping hole in adult leadership (and funding) around this issue.
Understanding violence needs an interdisciplinary lens
Since July 2024 a collective of academics in Bristol, both from the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England have been working together to form a Serious Violence Prevention Academic Hub. We are a group of academics spanning criminology, law, social policy, emergency medicine, general practice medicine, epidemiology, philosophy, social work, and more. We recognise that we all come to this problem from slightly different angles and the solution may lie in the gaps between our respective disciplinary outlooks. The main thing we do agree on though is that we need a ‘child first’ focus and the responsibility lies with us as adults to create a safer world for our children.
jadelevell.com 