This archive report was first published on 25 August 2019.
Published on August 25, 2019, a BBC article highlighted the alarming trend of children attacking their parents in Britain. The number of reported crimes involving children attacking parents has doubled in the past three years, from 7,224 in 2015 to 14,133 in 2018.
According to the article, West Midlands Police saw such incidents nearly treble, while Metropolitan (London) Police figures also rose, though at a lesser rate. Tony Madden, from the mental health charity Young Minds, attributed this behavior to mental distress in young people, stating, 'The figures are alarming but they don’t surprise us. When a young person is behaving in this way towards their parents there is a high likelihood that some sort of mental distress is involved.'
One mother, Helen, from South Yorkshire, has been a victim of her 11-year-old daughter's attacks. She has called the police three times to protect herself, with the last incident involving her daughter trying to get through a door to get at her. Helen's experiences are a testament to the growing concern of children attacking their parents.
Meanwhile, in the world of sports, black footballers who make mistakes are being subjected to racist abuse from their own team's fans. The latest example came at Manchester United, where French star Paul Pogba suffered a torrent of online criticism after a penalty miss. This incident is part of a larger trend of increased racism in British football, with reports of such abuse increasing by 43% last season.
