Abusive behaviour has been spreading at an alarming rate. Before we consider how society should respond, we should take stock of the problem. It is no exaggeration to say that far too many people have become infected with the tendency to insult, intimidate, even injure others just because they ‘feel’ aggrieved about something beyond the control of those they mistreat.
Incidents of hostility towards public-facing workers rose by 20% in a year, with 737,000 incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers recorded by the British Retail Consortium. A recent survey found that on average 180 attacks against NHS and council workers were reported every day. Physical assaults, sexual harassment, and racist abuse are now common. Latest data showed that nearly 1 in 7 NHS staff (14.5%) were physically attacked by patients or the public in 2025.
The contagion is affecting the young as well. Between 2020-21 and 2024-25, there were more than 55,000 suspensions linked to racist abuse at English schools. During that time, homophobic or transphobic abuse was logged more than 13,000 times, while disablist abuse was registered about 1,600 times. In barely four years, prejudicial abuse had risen by 68% rise.
Meanwhile, street protests frequently turn abusive and violent. Fuelled by anti-immigrant sentiments and hatred towards refugees, participants in the 2024 summer riots damaged properties and threatened lives. Of those arrested, 40% were found to have been previously reported for domestic abuse. Being abusive had apparently become part of their psychological DNA.
What is to be done? Some people suggest we should revive firm authority at every level – demanding unquestioning deference and commanding submissive compliance. But they have forgotten how such an approach leads to its own proliferation of abuse. Remove all scrutiny and accountability, the virus of abuse will spread through the misuse of power, excessive force, corrupt practice, vile intimidation, and so on, until fear and injustice saturate our social atmosphere.
Tyranny is not the solution to anarchy.
What we should turn to is a robust system to counter abusive behaviour. This will have four components:
[1] Rapid Reaction: clear warning is to be given as to the types of behaviour which will be deemed abusive, and how anyone behaving in such a manner will be swiftly detained by the relevant authority for a proportionate period (from a few hours to longer depending on the severity of the incident) to cool off in isolation and learn why they should not repeat such behaviour.
[2] Restorative Engagement: arrangement is to be made for the abusive individual to meet with the person(s) they behaved abusively towards in the presence of trained facilitators, to understand the hurt they inflicted, experience remorse, and express how they will not behave abusively in the future.
[3] Community Reparation: requirement is to be placed on those who have done significant damage (in mental, physical, financial terms) to carry out reparation duties – which are to be determined by those in the community who have been negatively affected, and could involve doing some of the work at a basic level in the organisations concerned (shops, hospitals, building sites, etc.), or serving the wider community (providing assistance to enquirers, cleaning, planting, etc).
[4] Preventative Safeguards: restrictions are to be imposed on those who show no remorse and continue to pose a threat to others, with electronic tags or as a last resort physical confinement, so that they cannot approach individuals or places to cause problems. Anger management and reparation duties are also to be part of the detention regime.
The system outlined will need to be adapted to different organisations, backed by statutory support and subject to independent monitoring to ensure its enforcement does not lead to its own forms of abuse. There is no question that we have reached a point where such an approach is necessary. The repetitive stating of “abuse will not be tolerated” achieves nothing. To stop the pandemic of abuse, corrective action has to be taken.
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For more information on abusive behaviour:
On retail workers: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c79ljgx0el8o
On NHS staff: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jan/10/nhs-staff-face-national-emergency-as-patient-violence-hits-285-incidents-a-day
On council workers: https://www.themj.co.uk/councils-report-sickening-attacks-staff ; https://www.localgov.co.uk/Council-workers-have-started-to-normalise-abuse-from-residents/63607
In schools: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdjpx7rnredo
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