Sir Keir Starmer has warned that the UK faces a new threat with acts of extreme violence being carried out by angry young men.
Mental health expert Noel McDermott looks at how as a nation we could be redefining terrorism and protecting our children by focusing on the issues of social integration, emotional intelligence and open communications and tolerating complexity.
Mental health expert Noel McDermott comments: “When I started my practice over thirty years ago I worked in forensic settings. Forensic meaning, pertaining to the criminal justice system. I had experience of working with disordered patients who had committed serious anti-social, violent crimes. So, it is not news to have mental health professionals commenting on these issues. The UK has a very successful track record of excellence in this field through prisons such as Grendon, and hospitals such as Broadmore. Recently the government indicated a wish to look at defining a form of violence from loners as a new expression of terrorism to bring it within the reach of the current Prevent programme. The Prime Minister indicated in his speech that a new threat had emerged of young men who are loners and misfits isolated in their bedrooms engaged in radical and violent online communities”.
Understanding neurodiverse ways
To understand risks to our young men of radicalisation we need to make something of a distinction between ‘anti-social’ and ‘social anxiety leading to isolation’. Many people who have neurodiverse ways of living in the world may have social anxieties and avoid social contact as a consequence. They are anxious and avoid social contact but are not anti-social. Most are empathic and do want safe people around them, but their diversity means they lack capacity to fit in and we have to fit in with their needs to be able to socialise. People in this category are not a threat and are more often than not victims and not perpetrators. The same is true of people with mental health issues. Recently a high profile man engaged in an anti-social gesture at a high profile event and some commentators suggest this was understood as part of a neurodiverse condition, ASD, that can often involve social awkwardness and social isolation. A person suffering from depression will socially isolate and become more ill as they do, they don’t plot to kill other people, they are at times a risk to themselves.
Suicide in men
This point about self harm and taking one's own life remains the biggest threat to life to our kids and especially to our boys. Boys and men make up 75% of death from taking one’s own life. Boys and men can often, though not always, express psychological distress by an angry rejection of social contact, by being anti-social, which can often lead to vicious cycles of further withdrawal and isolation and anger and withdrawal etc entrenching the depressive state. Ultimately the likely victim of this is the boy or man as they harm themselves fatally.
Male perpetrators
There is a cohort of boys and men who are more dangerous and here anti-social behaviours emerge. Here men become perpetrators and society has a responsibility to manage them and ensure the public are safe. It’s not all men, but it is a significant cohort that are serial offenders. Offender programmes can and do work but they are not a magic bullet and they are complex, resource heavy and have not been viewed favourably over the last 15 years as calls for punishment have dominated the discourse on offender management. Glasgow was known for male knife crime and they took a complex public health approach, with significant success, viewing violence as one might an infectious disease to contain outbreaks and treat with psycho-social and criminal justice interventions.
Now we see via communications and social media platforms pan national ‘movements’ influencing young men at risk. One of the prominent men making money on the back of these issues is a prominent GB citizen facing criminal charges abroad. As parents and the public it can seem overwhelming and disempowering with such complex and large issues, but there are things we can do to protect our children, boys and girls. This centres a lot on the issues of social integration, emotional intelligence and open communications and tolerating complexity.
How to protect our children:
Stay in the complexity - or diversity. Diversity and complexity are states of health for humans at both the individual and species levels. Splitting things into good or bad, right or wrong with complex issues is rarely helpful. We need absolute clarity on behaviours that should never be tolerated, such as violence, but also as individuals we need to keep the dialogue about these issues informed and complex and humane. There is not one thing that has created this situation nor will there be one thing that leads us away from it. Encourage adult conversations about these issues.
Promote the pro social. For social animals such as humans, isolation is a sign of problems. Promoting strong and diverse social groups for your kids is key to long term health and success so let it begin with you. You as the parent need to model that inclusion, diversity and tolerance that is essential to excellence in the social sphere for your kids.
Promote and encourage emotional intelligence and the ability to talk about feelings. Have regular circle times with your family to learn to talk and be listened to and share emotional feelings. Model; emotional communication yourself. Being able to put your feelings into words and share those words with others that care for them means your kids are less likely to try to manage feelings with drugs/drink/self harm/violence etc.
Have a 'we listen we don’t judge rule' - this allows your kids to tell you anything and ask for help. Also teach your kids you won’t be angry if they talk to another trusted adult such as a teacher rather than yourself.
Understanding consent. Teach our boys about consent and or girls about holding boundaries around their bodies and saying no.
Encourage civic participation and political discourse, irrespective of your own political views.Demonstrate and encourage connection around civic rules and political engagement with respect and tolerance.
Educate yourself and your kids on mental health and mental fitness and the importance of showing vulnerability.
It can appear to be a frightening world for our children but it’s possible for us to help them and ourselves navigate this.
Mental health expert Noel McDermott is a psychotherapist and dramatherapist with over 30 years’ work within the health, social care, education, and criminal justice fields. His company Mental Health Works provides unique mental health services for the public and other organisations. Mental Health Works offers in situ health care and will source, identify and coordinate personalised teams to meet your needs – https://www.mentalhealthworks.
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