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By Rachel Duncan, Trustee of FKCL, and Aunt of James Bascoe-Smith
For me this subject has always demanded the special attention that FKCL now gives it in this 21st Edition. Bruce Houlder, our founder, has asked me if I would consider introducing it to you.
First, some context. I have lived with undiagnosed ADHD while navigating fast-paced environments, constant change, and the emotional weight of experiences that demanded more of me than anyone could see. When knife crime entered my family’s life, it collided with my neurodivergence, coping mechanisms, responsibilities, and humanity. Everything changed on the day my nephew, James Bascoe-Smith, was brutally attacked in a case of mistaken identity.
Trauma doesn’t arrive gently; it crashes in. And for someone living with undiagnosed ADHD, already juggling rapid fire thoughts, heightened emotions, and the invisible labour of masking, the impact was seismic. Supporting James through his recovery while managing my own mental health became a journey of survival, advocacy and self discovery.
In the whirlwind of hospital visits, court dates, community meetings and life altering decisions, I learned how neurodiversity shapes trauma, how it intensifies overwhelm, how it complicates healing, and how it can also fuel extraordinary determination.
In 2024 I experienced a deeply traumatic breakdown, I thought I was a failure, I failed James, my family, my community.
I took many months of recovery to accept that I was not a failure; it was a signal. A reminder that even the strongest among us need space to breathe, to process, to be held. Yet, from that pain came purpose.
Becoming a trustee of Fighting Knife Crime London was not just a role it was a lifeline. A way to transform chaos into action, fear into advocacy, and lived experience into change. Our work is rooted in truth: knife crime is preventable, and community led solutions save lives. James’s story is proof of that.
This is not only about violence and recovery. It is about the intersection of mental health, neurodiversity and community activism. It is about the unseen battles fought behind public courage. It is about how ADHD, often misunderstood, often undiagnosed especially in Black women, shapes the way we show up in moments of crisis and in movements for change. Most of all, it is about legacy.
• A legacy built from survival, from truth telling, from refusing to let trauma silence us
• A legacy that demands safer futures for young people
• A legacy that calls each of us to act.
By the time you read this, the government’s much-awaited Independent Review into Mental Health Conditions, ADHD, and Autism by Prof Peter Fonagy will be in FKCL’s Resources section. The timing therefore for FKCL’s special edition on mental Health and neurodiversity could not be better. as we were determined that it should advance the discussion and explain what so many in different circumstances and different walks of life may find useful in dealing with the shattering consequences of poor mental health, and how we interact with those who are so affected.
The question running through this edition of might be expressed as what might change if, before judging the behaviour of a young person, we tried harder to understand what lies behind it?”
The nine contributions that follow approach that question from very different directions. Their authors bring expertise from youth justice, autism and neurodiversity, psychotherapy, community organisations, theatre, mentoring, and the criminal justice system; the latter as our contributor makes clear is neither equipped nor required to deal with the problems these pages address. There are expert contributions to from those who work in our prisons. What is striking is how frequently they arrive at related conclusions.
Mental health, neurodiversity, trauma, poverty, exclusion, race, family circumstances, education and a young person’s need to ‘belong’ cannot be considered in isolation. Nor can we assume that behaviour which appears difficult, disruptive or even threatening necessarily tells us the whole story.
This edition begins with Steph Roberts-Bibby, Chief Executive of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, who makes a powerful case for strengths-based support. She reminds us that long before a child carries a knife there may have been a complex chain of missed opportunities and unmet needs. The evidence she cites is sobering; children entering the justice system have disproportionately experienced special educational needs, school absence and exclusion, social-care involvement and other vulnerabilities. Her argument is not that neurodivergence causes offending. It is that unmet need can create vulnerability, and that early, individualised and joined-up intervention can make a profound difference.
Dr Luke Beardon, Senior Lecturer in Autism at Sheffield Hallam University and a leading writer and researcher on autism, challenges us to think differently about the relationship between autism and mental health. His deceptively simple formulation - Autism + Environment = Outcome - shifts attention from trying to change the autistic person towards considering the environment in which that person is expected to live. If an environment continually requires someone to suppress their authentic self, misunderstandings and distress should perhaps not surprise us. His message is ultimately an optimistic one: environments can be changed.
That idea is complemented by Dr Chris Papadopoulos, CEO of London Autism Group Charity, who explores the importance of acceptance, community and belonging. Autism is not a mental illness, he emphasises, although autistic people may experience mental-health difficulties. His contribution shows the human value of spaces in which people do not continually have to explain themselves, disguise their differences or prove that their needs are legitimate. Sometimes apparently small adjustments-to communication, sensory surroundings or expectations—can make an enormous difference.
Sayce Holmes-Lewis, Founder and CEO of Mentivity and a member of the London Policing Board, widens the lens further. Drawing on decades of work with young Londoners, he considers the intersection of mental health, neurodiversity, race, poverty and belonging. He asks how many young people have historically been misunderstood because neither communities nor institutions possessed the language, cultural understanding or curiosity needed to interpret their behaviour. Particularly important is his defence of the “third spaces”—youth clubs, sports facilities, community centres and other places where trusted relationships develop naturally. These are not optional extras. They can form part of the protective infrastructure surrounding a child.
That leads naturally to the contribution from Lynda Gibbs KC (Hon), Dean of the Inns of Court College of Advocacy, and Wendy Showell Nicholas, an accredited psychotherapist and specialist in trauma-informed practice. Their title captures one of the central messages of this entire edition: Understanding the Child Before Judging the Behaviour. They remind lawyers and other professionals that the child who finally arrives in a courtroom brings with them everything that happened before—perhaps trauma, bereavement, neglect, neurodivergence, communication difficulties, poverty, exclusion or exploitation. Understanding does not mean excusing harmful behaviour. On the contrary, they argue that meaningful accountability requires understanding the capacities and circumstances of the child we are holding accountable.
Marine Bernier-Harrington, Director and Co-Founder and Kate Oliver, Community and Content Co-ordinator at The Neuro-Diversity Family Hub bring this vividly into everyday life. Through recognisable examples, they demonstrate how neurodivergent behaviour can be misread as defiance, disengagement or deliberate disruption. Differences in communication, sensory processing, attention, impulse control and emotional regulation may profoundly affect how a child reacts under pressure. Their contribution encourages parents and professionals to replace assumption with curiosity: what might this behaviour be communicating?
Sara-Louise Ackrill Co -Founder of Start Differently then asks us to consider another influence: the beliefs about mental health and neurodiversity that young people inherit from adults. Families, cultures and institutions inevitably transmit attitudes about diagnosis, disability, medication and what constitutes “normal” behaviour. Her challenge is an important one: sometimes adults need to get out of young people’s way, listen to their experience and allow them greater ownership of who they are.
There is a wonderfully practical expression of hope in Elizabeth Lahav’s contribution Finding the Glimmer Before the Crisis. Drawing on her experience of dance and her work as a Dance Movement Psychotherapist and as the Founder and CEO of Streetz Ahead, she explores how dance, mentoring, creative therapy and theatre can provide safety, identity, expression and connection. It reminds us that prevention need not always look like an intervention. A dance class, a theatre group, a mentor or simply an adult who recognises a young person’s talent may provide something immensely important: a place to belong and a different future to imagine.
Finally, Ava Chowdhury-Turner, a prison coach with StandOut and an aspiring criminal barrister, takes us inside the prison system. Her examination of prisoner and youth mental health reminds us what can happen when difficulties have not been successfully addressed earlier. She also highlights significant gaps in what we know and argues for better research and investment in evidence-based support. It is an appropriate place to end, because it brings us back to the cost—human as well as financial—of waiting until crisis before acting.
These are not simply expressions of opinion. The assertions made throughout this edition are researched and referenced, and they come from contributors with substantial professional or lived experience of the subjects about which they write. Readers can follow the evidence and examine the sources for themselves. That matters to us at Fighting Knife Crime London.
But evidence only has value if we are prepared to learn from it.
Across these nine contributions, several lessons recur: identify need earlier; listen before labelling; understand before judging; recognise neurodiversity rather than punish difference; preserve the places in which young people can belong; support trusted relationships; and intervene before difficulty becomes crisis.
None of this removes personal responsibility. Nor does it suggest that every act of violence can be explained by mental ill-health, trauma or neurodivergence. The message is more challenging than that. It asks whether, as families, schools, health services, communities, police, courts and government, we are doing enough soon enough.
If we want fewer young people entering the criminal justice system, we cannot begin our work at the courtroom door. We must begin much earlier—with the child, their family, their school, their community, their differences, their strengths and their hopes.
Perhaps the most important lesson in this edition is also the simplest: before asking what is wrong with a young person, we should ask what has happened, what they need, what they can become—and what we can do to help them get there.
We hope you enjoy reading these insights and encourage others to share them widely across the sector.
In this edition, we have slight departure from our usual format, as our Founder Bruce Houlder attempts a poetic and philosophical departure which engages the lessons of Homer’s Odyssey in our approach to the challenges our lives present in his poem ‘Haunted by Homer’.
