I have written in past articles about crime, and violent offending, being largely committed by young men, and that apart from a few persistent offenders, most age out of crime in their early to mid-twenties. This is one of the few things that most criminologists agree on as the statistics are extremely compelling and hard to dispute. However, I haven’t written much about why violent offending is committed by young people, especially young men. I have written somewhat about why young people stop ...(Click Here To Read The Article)
Most subcultures have their own language and slang. The common use of words, phrases and terms etc. help define and unite members as well as allow them to quickly and easily communicate relatively complex ideas and concepts in a word or a few words; slang becoming a “shorthand” for the ideas that define the group. The language that subcultures use can also permeate and get picked up by those in mainstream society e.g., The Beatnik and Counter Culture movements of the 1950’s and 1960’s gave us wo...(Click Here To Read The Article)
In the early 2000’s the term “terrorism” started to be replaced by “violent extremism”, both in academia and public policy e.g. organizations like the United Nations, U.S. Department of State, and various European counter-terrorism bodies began using the term violent extremism more frequently, with the “UN's Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism”, which was introduced in 2015, marking a key institutional endorsement of the term etc. Whilst there are those who saw this as a form of politica...(Click Here To Read The Article)
As the school year ends and wraps up, and the long school holiday begins, it’s worth taking a moment to look at the role(s) schools play concerning crime and violence prevention and reduction. We can be forgiven for thinking/believing that schools are unsafe places, especially after a school shooting, where the 24x7 news cycle constantly reminds us of this particular type of tragedy. However, when we look at the statistics for such events, they are actually extremely rare. In 2023, there were 34...(Click Here To Read The Article)
Whilst videos on YouTube and those posted on social media may give the impression that one-punch knockouts are common, the reality is that they’re not. There is also a huge difference between someone who, after receiving a punch goes down and gives up the fight – and there is no judgment on my part concerning this - versus someone who is actually rendered unconscious. The point being that if you believe you will end/finish a fight with one strike/punch you are engaging in “wishful” thinking. Eq...(Click Here To Read The Article)
Part of my UK upbringing took place in the English countryside, where fox hunting was a regular occurrence. For those who are unaware of these “events”, the largest single pack hunt - The Duke of Beaufort’s Hunt – sees around 50-150 riders, with a pack of 30-50 hounds hunt a single fox. The riders dress up in red jackets etc., and along with the dogs run the fox down until it is too exhausted to continue. Until the Hunting Act of 2004, the fox rarely escaped as the odds were so stacked against i...(Click Here To Read The Article)
People create narratives, and rarely are they completely accurate. When I was a child, I was often told by teachers and other adults that I “didn’t know how good I had it”, with a following story about tin baths, working down coal mines, and only having lard spread on a piece of old leather to eat etc. These “hardships” were worn like a badge of honor that myself and those of my generation – at the time - were meant to celebrate. When I think about my childhood and how the world is now, I’m not ...(Click Here To Read The Article)
There is a tendency in Krav Maga and Self-Defense circles to treat all violence as being the same and equal and reducing everything down to the physical level e.g., a knife slash is the same as a knife stab, without attempting to understand how the context and motivation etc., precipitate and influence the nature of the assault. A slash with a knife, although it can be dealt with in the same way as a stab, contains a very different intent i.e., someone who is slashing is look to injure and cause...(Click Here To Read The Article)
I’m at heart a grappler. I grew up practicing Judo and it intuitively made more sense to me than the striking arts I practiced at the same time e.g., I did some Karate-Jutsu, Wing Chun Kung Fu (I still remember - and can perform badly - Siu-Lum-Tao, the system’s first form) and Boxing in my teens and early twenties etc. I now understand that fighting is fighting and that the concepts used in the grappling arts have the same counterparts in the striking ones. However, for me, they were more obvio...(Click Here To Read The Article)
I was fortunate that as an undergraduate student in psychology I was exposed to zoology and in turn to ethology - ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior, particularly under natural conditions, with an emphasis on the evolutionary, biological, and ecological factors that shape that behavior. Ethology is especially focused on instinctive/genetically hardwired behaviors, such as fear and aggression in animals, including humans. Studying zoology and ethology exposed me to the work(s) of...(Click Here To Read The Article)