Macho culture 'fosters violence': A preoccupation with manliness is blamed for the brutality of criminals but the public's fear of becoming a victim is nothing new. Terry Kirby reports

THE CULTURE of machismo, supported by dangerous school sports, the mass media and politicians 'afraid to lose face', encouraged violence in society, a leading pschologist told a conference yesterday.

Richard Ryder, a specialist in teenage psychological disorders, told a conference in Oxford organised by the Howard League for Penal Reform that society was so immersed in 'this macho nonsense' that it was taken for granted and accepted. The three-day conference is on violence in the community and in prisons.

Mr Ryder said young criminals often committed crimes because of pressure to conform to the norms of their group or gang. That subculture, he argued, was fostered by society's reliance upon machismo, a culture which was also fostered in prisons.

'We take it for granted, but just look at the macho crudeness of the pop culture - leather, chains, grunting and roaring. Look at the studied ugliness of modern art, the bare chests and beer bellies of our lager lout culture. Look at the fascination with violent sports - football, rugger, boxing and wrestling,' he said. 'Men are constantly at pains to prove how manly they are . . . everywhere there is an obsession with manliness.'

Mr Ryder attacked Baroness Thatcher for her 'absurdly macho' style when prime minister. 'Thatcherism was a huge exercise in machismo deployed just in order to avoid her being accused of being a 'weak' or 'indecisive' or 'emotional' woman. Queen Elizabeth I did exactly the same. Her Tilbury speech of 1588 could have come from Mrs Thatcher's own lips - 'I know I have the body of a weak and feeble women, but I have the heart and stomach of a king.'

Machismo, he believed, was unnecessary in a society insulated from the rigours of hunting, gathering and fighting rival tribes or wars. 'Without sufficient uses for all this machismo, it is hardly surprising that it begins to be used for anti-social purposes, for car crime, for mugging old ladies, for rape, for football hooliganism, terrorism and serial murder.'

He said that violent sports should be prohibited in schools, that special efforts should be made to eliminate bullying in schools and that a way must be found to reduce the media's reinforcement of the links between crude violence and heroism.

Paul Gordon, senior research officer of the Runnymede Trust, told the conference that that there were estimated to be about 70,000 racial incidents in Britain each year - one incident every seven to eight minutes.

He said: 'The reality behind these figures is a Britain in which in some areas, black people will not venture out after dark, where even during the day black people will take cabs to work or to the shops, where black schoolchildren have to be escorted to and from their schools.'

Mr Gordon said racist incidents were not confined to the inner city. 'What little we know suggests that isolated black families or small communities outside the large connurbations are even more vulnerable to attack and abuse.' In the south-west of England, Asian families had been forced to leave their homes and businesses because of hostility.

Michael Jack, Minister of State at the Home Office, told the conference that under the Criminal Justice Act provisions due to come into force next month, courts will have greater powers to impose longer sentences for violence and sexual offences, coupled with greater powers of supervision over offenders after release on parole.