6 Jun 2025
Perpetrator-centred narratives, and the politics of sexual violence prevention
The Netflix UK series Adolescence offers a disturbing portrayal of male violence against women through the story of Jamie, a 13-year-old boy arrested for the murder of his classmate, Katie Leonard. Across four tense, real-time episodes, the series interrogates the social and psychological conditions that shape Jamie’s actions, placing his internal world and external context under a forensic lens. In doing so, Adolescence joins a longstanding tradition in film, television, and news media that seeks to explain violence by centring the perpetrator. The result is a drama that is both socially valuable, forcing viewers to confront the roots of misogynistic violence, and ideologically fraught, as it raises fundamental questions about whose stories are told when gendered harm dominates the headlines.
From its opening scene, the series aligns viewers with Jamie’s perspective. We experience the police raid through his eyes, witness his panic as armed officers confront him, and follow his disorientation as the investigation unfolds. This immersive structure creates a reluctant intimacy, compelling us to understand Jamie’s vulnerabilities, emotional isolation, and the misogynistic digital subcultures that inform his worldview. While the series does not excuse his violence, it deliberately contextualises it. Adolescence traces a disturbing continuum, from casual peer-group sexism to incel forums, presenting Jamie’s act not as an aberration, but as the toxic culmination of prevailing cultural norms. In doing so, the series rejects the trope of the lone "monster" and instead offers a systemic critique: a portrait of adolescence warped by patriarchy, online radicalisation, and generational masculine detachment.
However, the show’s focus on the perpetrator undermines its message. Katie, the victim, remains largely absent, seen only in photographs, remembered through others’ recollections, and never given narrative or emotional agency of her own. This silencing is not incidental. In episode two, Detective Sergeant Misha Frank articulates the imbalance with unsettling clarity: “We’ve been following Jamie’s brain around this entire case. Katie isn’t important; Jamie is. Everyone will remember Jamie; no one will remember her.” The line operates as a meta-commentary on the series itself, acknowledging the very critique it invites. Yet awareness does not equal redress. By choosing not to dramatise Katie’s life, her friendships, ambitions, or feelings, the series may hold a mirror to longstanding media patterns that erase women’s experiences of violence, but it risks replicating those same patterns in the process. This dynamic can retraumatise survivors and foster a public appetite for narratives that normalise or excuse male violence, leaving victims feeling unseen and audiences misinformed.
This tension, between critique and complicity, lies at the heart of Adolescence. Feminist commentators have long challenged the cultural tendency to prioritise the inner lives of male perpetrators over the victimisation of women. In this regard, Adolescence fits within a lineage of narratives where a woman’s death serves as a device to explore a man’s psyche. We see Jamie’s tears, fears, and rationalisations, yet never glimpse Katie’s life beyond her final moments. Her absence reflects a broader reality: victims of misogynistic violence are often reduced to narrative catalysts for others’ emotional development, rather than recognised as fully realised individuals.
Nevertheless, the series makes a significant modern contribution to the field of violence prevention. By mapping Jamie’s descent into misogyny, it reveals how everyday attitudes, emotional disengagement from fathers, peer dynamics, teacher negligence, and predatory online cultures, coalesce to shape harmful masculinities. Prominent violence-prevention educator Dr. Jackson Katz describes the series as a “teachable moment.” As the founder of the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) programme, Katz argues that Adolescence can serve as a catalyst for critical conversations with boys and men about online misogyny, peer complicity, and bystander intervention. Katz calls the drama “a powerful opportunity” for fathers, teachers, coaches, and mentors to dissect Jamie’s choices, expose the group dynamics that normalise contempt for girls, and model healthier forms of masculinity. Drawing from his decades of work in campus and military settings, Katz emphasises that when respected male figures speak out, young men are far more likely to challenge sexist banter, intervene in harassment, and help shift harmful norms. By embedding these discussions in a widely viewed cultural touchstone like Adolescence, facilitators gain a shared narrative that translates compelling drama into practical strategies for prevention—in classrooms, sports clubs, workplaces, and community centres.
In sum, Adolescence is both a valuable and troubling cultural artefact. It deepens public understanding of how “ordinary” boys can be shaped by misogynistic influences and how girls may pay the ultimate price. Yet it leaves the girls themselves in silence, a choice that underscores the very media tendencies feminist scholars have long critiqued. The show’s educational value is clear, particularly in its effort to expose the structural roots of violence. But for prevention work to be genuinely transformative, it must also centre the voices of the victims of violence. Without that shift, we risk continuing to explore the perpetrator’s mind while forgetting the voices he silenced.
In one of the final scenes, a detective decides to spend more time with his son, a quiet yet poignant gesture that underscores the power of relational presence and care as a form of prevention. In this way, Adolescence reflects a core feminist ethos: that violence arises not merely from individual pathology, but from deeply entrenched cultural norms, and that meaningful prevention requires reshaping those norms at every level of society. Future interventions and narratives can learn from Adolescence: while exposing the roots of violence is crucial, it is equally important to amplify the voices of those who endure it and to critically examine our role in challenging the social norms that sustain it.
Information and support for anyone affected by sexual harm is available through the following services in Aotearoa:
· Wellington Rape Crisis – Free support for anyone affected by sexual violence. Call 04 801 8973 or visit wellingtonrapecrisis.org.nz
· WellStop – Crisis support and counselling for people affected by sexual harm. Call 0800 935 5786 or visit wellstop.org.nz
· HELP Auckland – Crisis support and counselling for survivors of sexual abuse. Call 0800 623 1700 or visit helpauckland.org.nz
· Safe to Talk / Kōrero Mai Ka Ora – 24/7 national sexual harm helpline. Call 0800 044 334, text 4334, or visit safetotalk.nz
· RespectEd Aotearoa – Prevention education and advice.
Reference list
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