Assessing the Threat of Incel Violence

Abstract

In recent years, increasingly serious incidents of violence have been committed by young men predominantly in the United States and Canada who self-identify as incels (involuntary celibates). Although these attacks often specifically target women, the principal source of their animus, men as well as children have been among the casualties in the series of shootings and vehicular homicides that have occurred at universities, high schools, shopping malls, and on city streets. Although, the incel worldview is not obviously political, its core ethos entails the subjugation and repression of a group and its violence is designed to have far-reaching societal effects. Accordingly, incel violence arguably conforms to an emergent trend in terrorism with a more salient hate crime dimension that necessitates greater scrutiny and analysis-especially as it spreads to Europe and shows similarities to and has nascent connections with other terrorist movements.

Radicalization as Envious Militancy

“…Cottee (2021) somewhat departs from the general trend by briefly insisting on the potentially central contributing role envy could have in incel-inspired terrorism. Incel refers to an online subculture promoted by men who, incapable of matching the demands of the mating market, find themselves stuck into involuntary celibacy (Hoffman et al, 2020). Indeed, posts on internet forums such as the following one frequently illuminate the motivational part envy plays in incel groups dynamics and in the radicalization of some of their members: "Incels' see another side to humanity that the socially privileged are blind to" (Maxwell et al, 2020(Maxwell et al, , p. 1862.…”

“…Although the scholarly focus seems to be more surely grabbed by hints of emotions such as shame, humiliation and indignation (e.g., Cottee, 2021;Hoffman et al, 2020;Juergensmeyer, 2017, p. 241), envy appears to creep back in, here and there, as in the analysis of the verbal productions of the perpetrators of such violence as described above. Why such a systematic downplaying of envy?…”

Mutual radicalisation of opposing extremist groups via the Internet

“…Given a recent increase in popularity of the so-called 'manosphere' online, a conglomerate of online misogynist movements focused on "men's issues" including 'involuntary celibate' groups and 'pick-up artists', this is especially concerning. These groups have been directly linked with at least six large scale hateful extremist violent events since 2014 (Hoffman, Ware, & Shapiro, 2020) as well as numerous large-scale online harassment campaigns (Nagel, 2017). Efforts are therefore needed to address these gaps so that the negative impacts of online hate across the entire spectrum of targeted groups can be understood and then mitigated.…”

Direct contacts with potential interviewees when carrying out online ethnography on controversial and polarized topics: a loophole in ethics guidelines

“…Incels are considered particularly dangerous since they were associated with a series of killings committed in Isla Vista (2014), Oregon (2015), Edmonton (2016), Aztec (2017), Parkland (2018), Toronto (2018), and Tallahassee (2018). This threat is seen as spreading to Europe, and experts suggest it is only a matter of time before the UK witnesses a violent attack by someone identifying as incel (Hoffman et al, 2020). To explore how incel cultures and networks are enabling misogynistic extremist and violent behaviours online, the researcher employed an online ethnographic approach (netnography, see Kozinets, 2010) relying on non-participant observation and thematic analysis of publicly available forum discussions, videos and comments on social media platforms.…”