Youth violence, masculinity and dismissing therapy: “The reality that university can’t give you”

4:33pm

When Anthony Olaseinde was just 15-years-old, he watched a teenager being stabbed in a Sheffield park. Days later the youngster was dead. At the time Anthony was a member of a gang where fights were commonplace. Violent postcode rivalry was a way of life and knife crime was rife.

It took Anthony, now 37, another nine years to leave that part of his life behind. "I didn't want to do it no more," he says. "There was nothing in it for me."

His story isn't unusual. Figures from the Office For National Statistics (ONS) reveal how knife crime has seen an 80% increase in the last decade. Today, South Yorkshire is ranked fourth in the country for knife crime hotspots. At a rate of 11.7 offences per 10,000 people, London is only slightly higher with a rate of 15.6.

Anthony, who founded and now runs the charity Always An Alternative, believes early intervention and prevention is easier and more successful than rehabilitation. The organisation challenges the mindsets of youths-at-risk to deter them from a life of violence and crime, through education programmes, mobile youth clubs, and elevating the voices of victims, victims' families, and professionals.

Although the services the charity provides are available to young adults, Anthony notes they hardly engage with it. He believes the lack of positive influences in their lives and the normalcy of such violence in their environments renders them desensitised and incapable of seeing a better, safer life.

Anthony, who still lives in Sheffield, was brought up around substance abuse and domestic abuse. 'I didn't have a stable home and was moving around every couple of years," he says. "I had no positive influences in my life."

It was only when Anthony was 13 and moved to live with his grandmother in a more affluent area, escaping the "dog eat dog" environment, that he realised people had more peaceful lives. But this came with its own set of difficulties as he felt like an outsider. People in the community ostracised him by complaining about his behaviour and ringing the police on him.

"Even though it showed me that it [a normal life] could be done, it made me feel that somebody like me couldn’t do it," says Anthony. "I had been brought up around violence."

Only when he abandoned his former life did Anthony register the trauma he went through. He says: "It all creeps back and bites you on your ass. Even now I'm delving into depths of it."

Therapy is believed to be one of the most effective methods of recovery, however men are unlikely to seek such help. It would be against their nature: all they have ever known about what it means to be a man.

The prefrontal cortex which deals with rational thinking, reasoning and self-control is one of the last parts of the brain to mature - usually around 25-years-old. Before this development, children and young adults' decisions are shaped by the amygdala, a primitive and reactionary part of the brain, hence the notion that young people are impulsive and immature.

This makes them extremely vulnerable to exploitation and grooming by gang members who have weaponised this to recruit children into the County Lines network. In an investigation by BBC North West, it was found that more than 40 children daily in England are referred to social services for fear that they have been exploited by gangs.

The National Crime Agency defines County Lines as: "Where illegal drugs are transported from one area to another, often across police and local authority boundaries (although not exclusively), usually by children or vulnerable people who are coerced into it by gangs."

There are many factors which increase the risk of potential gang involvement in children. Many of them share similar backgrounds of abuse, neglect and trauma. They are likely to be truant, have been excluded from school, been in care, or their families are being supported by social workers due to dysfunctionality. The common denominator of these factors are superficially solved by gang participation which provide friendship and sometimes even family. Lastly, the appeal is embellished by the security of close ranks, money, and notoriety. Few understand the difference between popularity and infamy at that age.

After Anthony made the decision to leave his previous way of life, he studied for a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Network Engineering and started a security company called Stay Safe Security. He implemented a programme called "Keep Sheffield Stainless" and from this came the idea to start his charity.

Combatting knife crime and youth violence continues to be a battle. Churchill Support Services underlined the severity of the issue, noting the rate of knife crime isn't declining.

Although early prevention has proven to be effective, adults should not be left behind, especially knowing that most of them began as victims too. Anthony admits he does not have the answers to solving the issue, but highlights the passivity of support services, who rely on people to come to them for help, are not helping. He scoffs at the absurdity that men trapped in violent lifestyles would seek help on their own volition. He believes the government could do more to help.

"It takes so much to seek help and they're not going to," Anthony says. "Services need to be going out to them. They need to be getting people in."