Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller in ‘Adolescence’. Photo:

Courtesy of Netflix© 2024

Adolescence tells the frightening story of a 13-year-old boy accused of the stabbing murder of his female classmate. Sadly, the story isn’t far from real-life events. 

In England and Wales, the Office for National Statistics reported that the number of knife attacks has nearly doubled over the past decade. In March 2023, the Ministry of Justice convicted or cautioned — a formal warning typically given to people over the age of 10 for minor offenses — almost 18,500 knife-related crimes. 

Approximately 17.3% of those offenders were between the ages of 10 and 17. 

“One of our aims was to ask, ‘What is happening to our young men these days, and what are the pressures they face from their peers, from the internet, and from social media?’ ” Stephen Graham, who co-created the drama series and played the accused teen’s father, told Tudum in March 2025.

He continued, “And the pressures that come from all of those things are as difficult for kids here as they are the world over.”

To that end, the series isn’t based on a singular case but on a rising trend in violence against young girls at the hands of their male peers.

Here’s everything to know about the real-life events that inspired Adolescence — and the terrifying internet movement the show cautions against.

Warning: Adolescence spoilers ahead!

Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller in ‘Adolescence’. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024

In Adolescence, 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) is accused of murdering a girl named Katie Leonard at his school. The four-episode series follows the investigation in real time, starting with Jamie’s arrest after Katie’s body is found. Subsequent episodes pick up 72 hours, seven months and over a year after her murder. 

Rather than focusing on the details of the crime, the series unpacks what led a typical young man like Jamie to commit such a harrowing offense. Graham told The Wrap that he and co-creator Jack Thorne didn’t want to take the easy route and “blame the parents.”

“We could have made a drama about gangs and knife crime, or about a kid whose mother is an alcoholic or whose father is a violent abuser,” Graham told Tudum. “Instead, we wanted you to look at this family and think, ‘My God. This could be happening to us!’ And what’s happening here is an ordinary family’s worst nightmare.”

Mark Stanley as Paulie Hunter, Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller and Stephen Graham as Eddie Miller in ‘Adolescence’. Courtesy of Netflix© 2024

Adolescence isn’t based on a true story, but rather the U.K.’s real-life rise in knife-related crimes among juveniles. Graham revealed during the show’s London premiere that he was inspired by two different crimes — both involving adolescent boys who had allegedly stabbed girls.

“They are young boys,” the co-creator told reporters, per Birmingham Live. “They’re not men. And it was the complete opposite end of the country … it really hurt my heart. For many different reasons. Predominantly as a father but also, kind of, where we’re at in society for this to happen.”

The rise in violent crime within this demographic motivated U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to declare in January 2025 that “loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom, accessing all manner of material online, desperate for notoriety” should be considered terror threats, per the Deccan Herald. 

That statement came after a then-17-year-old boy pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing three schoolgirls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England the previous year. 

Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller and Erin Doherty as Briony Ariston in ‘Adolescence’. Courtesy of Ben Blackall/Netflix © 2024

Without the parents to blame for Jamie’s actions, Thorne said he used incel culture to craft the fictional teen’s motivation for murder.

He told The Wrap in 2025 that the online movement — described by the Anti-Defamation League as a group of heterosexual men who blame their “involuntary celibacy” on women and society at large — isn’t “easy to put into a box.”

“In lots of ways, I could understand what would attract Jamie to these ideas,” Thorne said. “That idea of there is a reason why you aren’t liked. There is a reason why you find it very difficult to talk to women.”

He continued, “There’s a reason why you feel isolated from your parents. There’s a reason why you’re struggling academically. If you can put all these things in an argument that makes sense, that’s really, really dangerous.” 

Adolescence also makes references to the “manosphere,” a broader culture of internet misogynists. Incels believe that women hold too much power in romantic relationships and are the most violent subset of this group, per ADL.

Many violent and fatal attacks against women, including the six people killed by Elliot Rodger in 2014, have been linked to incel ideology. 

British-US former professional kickboxer and controversial influencer Andrew Tate after having been released from detention on March 12, 2024 in Bucharest, Romania. DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP via Getty

In addition to shining a light on the radicalization of young men through incel culture, Adolescence also name-drops Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer turned podcaster who’s popular within the manosphere. The American-British internet personality has amassed over 10 million followers on X, where he shares his controversial and misogynistic views. 

Graham told GQ U.K. that he first came across Tate when his son sent him an unrelated workout video that led to the influencer “popping up” on his social media feeds. 

“I thought, ‘Well, I’m a semi-put-together 51-year-old man who knows a little bit of who I am and what I’m about,’ ” the Boiling Point actor said during the March 2025 interview. “So what if I was a 13-year-old boy who didn’t have the greatest relationship with my father, didn’t really have that solid connection with a role model, and was finding my feet out there?’ ”

He continued, “When I was a kid, when I was in my bedroom, my mum knew I was safe. There wasn’t really much I could be doing that would bring me to harm. But in today’s day and age, these phones are very dangerous. And these so-called influencers, I think there’s a huge responsibility there.” 

As of 2025, Tate is under multiple investigations for human trafficking, rape and forming an organized crime group. He’s denied the allegations.