The crisis: gender-based violence, misogyny and young people 

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) has reached ‘epidemic’ levels in England and Wales according to the NPCC and College of Policing. Familiar stories and figures about the prevalence of domestic abuse and sexual violence circulate, while the police suggest that “nobody” fully understands the scale and impact.

Recent evidence suggests that young people in the UK are more divided than previous generations in their views on masculinity and women’s equality. Additionally, The Youth Endowment Fund reported in 2024 that 33% of 13-17-year-olds have encountered content that encourages violence against women and girls.

The popular Netflix drama, Adolescence has brought gender-based violence into mainstream discussion. It focuses on the influence of social media through the fictional story of a murder of a young girl by a young boy who has been exposed to extremist misogynistic content online and is deemed an ‘incel’ by peers. 

But, despite shedding light on the issue, bringing it into the living rooms of many parents that may not have been aware of the murky online world, criticisms that it simplifies a complex issue by overplaying the online factors and underplaying the broader societal challenges around worsened social inequalities,  the impact of Covid-19 on mental health and early development and increased disengagement from education, employment and training. 

The complexity of gender-based violence

Gender-based violence can instead be understood as a ‘wicked’ problem – a complex social or cultural issue that is difficult to define and solve – given the complex, multi-faceted, messy, and often disputed nature of its causes and solutions. Thinking around wicked problems was developed by Rittel and Webber, design thinkers, in 1973. The concept has been used extensively in public health since, given the complexity surrounding many public health concerns, whether alcohol and drugs, obesity and physical activity, or gender-based violence. 

A public health perspective pushes us to consider the multiple dimensions. When considering the broader risk factors associated with youth violence in general, which is mostly perpetrated by young men and boys, risk factors include:

• Individual risk factors – such as early malnutrition and mental health and access to online material
• Family risk factors – such as abuse
• School and peer group risk factors – such as poor educational attainment
• Community risk factors – such as deprivation and lack of opportunity. 

Research into the online phenomenon of ‘incels’ – men who identify as ‘involuntarily celibate’ – further identifies the role of individual risk factors such as poor mental health, political beliefs and neurodiversity. This research also suggests, however, that incels are a ‘red herring’ in that they make up a very small group, few appear to be motivated to physical acts of violence, and that the term is increasingly losing meaning. For example, Andrew Tate (referenced in Adolescence) is not an incel. Fundamentally, this research shows that spending time online in and of itself does not lead to misogyny or gender-based violence.

We spoke with Professor Annop Nayak of Newcastle University who has been researching youth inequalities and transitions, and masculinities and social change for over 20 years. Anoop described how masculinity is often defined against ‘others’, such as women, other men and queer people. He explained that a host of factors influence young people’s ideas of what masculinity means. These include experiences of social disadvantage, online content and wider media, relationships with others and educational environments. This can lead to negative attitudes that create an environment for prejudice and violence to take place. 

For example, Professor Nayak conducted research about masculinity with 120 young people aged 9-11 in schools in a post-industrial area.  The workshops involved speaking to the young people about what masculinity means to them. While young people mentioned being able to fight and do physical labour, care was something that mattered the most to many and something that they felt was lacking in their relationships with men. 

“Probably one of the most surprising things for us was that what people most wanted from men in their lives was care.” – Professor Anoop Nayak

What can we do?

Understanding gender-based violence as a wicked problem means recognising that addressing it will never be easy, and instead requires a series of complex, multi-faceted, messy solutions that need the buy-in of stakeholders across society. At a minimum, solutions must include the police, government, social media companies, schools, youth organisations, and parents/carers. The proliferation of recent calls for social media bans or the promotion of more positive male role models will not be enough alone. 

More than this, taking a public health perspective pushes us to treat violence like an infectious disease, with precipitating risk factors and mitigating protective factors. This works to reduce risk factors ‘upstream’ by involving multiple public agencies and social services. 

At Rocket Science, we work extensively with public agencies, local authorities and non-governmental organisations that are directly and indirectly working to reduce youth and gender-based violence. 

Findings from our work brings attention to the types of preventative work that are already being done with young people: 

• Positive diversionary activities – enhance young men and boys’ protective factors such as positive peer groups, positive male role models, and opportunities to be involved in sport and hobbies which offer an alternative to being online or out in the street.  
• Tackling online harms – evaluating a pilot for online harms educational and support provision, highlighted the level of need for support at the pilot school and the importance of a co-productive and whole school approach to provision.  
• Mentoring, trusted adults and the London New Deal for Young People – we are looking into how local governments and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise organisations can support and develop infrastructure to provide mentoring for young people in London. 
• Better connecting policing and mental health services, responding to the evidence around incels. For example at risk young men and boys need mental health support rather than police intervention.
• Reflecting on Professor Nayak’s work, creating a more caring, compassionate approach to gender-based violence is likely to be an important way to support young men and boys.

It’s clear the problem of gender-based violence is one that is complex and multi-faceted and the breadth of our work in this area combined with the research tells us that the solutions must be similarly varied.