A significant number of mass attacks are motivated by misogyny, new Secret Service report finds

A new report from the US Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center examines five years of data on mass attacks in public places in the US from 2016-2020. The report, which looked at 173 separate incidents, found that mass attacks are an almost exclusively male sport: 96% of the attackers were male. And a significant number of them were motivated by misogyny.

Some of the report’s other findings:

Half of the attackers were motivated by grievances, and were retaliating for perceived wrongs related to personal, domestic, or workplace issues….

One-quarter of the attackers subscribed to a belief system involving conspiracies or hateful ideologies, including anti-government, anti-Semitic, and misogynistic views.

Attackers displayed plenty of red flags before their attacks.

Most of the attackers had exhibited behavior that elicited concern in family members, friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, and others … Many attackers had a history of physically aggressive or intimidating behaviors, evidenced by prior violent criminal arrests/charges, domestic violence, or other acts of violence toward others.

Specifically, “nearly half of the attackers were found to have had a history of domestic violence, misogynistic behaviors, or both.”

Quite a few were motivated by misogynistic ideologies. “Misogyny can play a central role in motivating an attacker to perpetrate mass violence,” the report noted,

as well as engage in more prevalent acts of violence, including stalking and domestic abuse. … Though not all who possess misogynistic views are violent, viewpoints that describe women as the enemy or call for violence against women remain a cause for concern. At least 35 attackers (19%) displayed misogynistic behaviors prior to their attacks, including calling women derogatory names, engaging in sexual harassment, and threatening sexual violence.

The report offered many examples of these concerning behaviors:

Several attackers engaged in harassing and stalking behaviors toward former romantic partners, including calling or sending repeated text messages after a no-contact order was issued and repeatedly driving by the woman’s home or workplace. Eight attackers had a known history of touching women in a sexual manner without their consent. One attacker was disciplined at work because he repeatedly touched a female co-worker inappropriately, ultimately leading to a workplace investigation and the attacker quitting before he could be fired. Another attacker had a history of groping women on the street.

Some took their misogyny online:

In addition to in-person acts, 14 attackers (8%) engaged in online misogynistic behavior. For example, while communicating through a social media platform messaging app, one attacker threatened to rape a female acquaintance.

Online communities, as this blog has made clear innumerable times, can both cause and reinforce this sort of misogyny.

Those who subscribe to extreme misogynistic belief systems often communicate about, promote, and consume these views across various online communities. In some instances, some of these community members go beyond simply advocating on behalf of men, expressing extreme ideologies involving the sexual objectification of women and calls for violence against women. Four attackers displayed behaviors associated with the incel (i.e., involuntarily celibate10) movement, including posting praise for a prior incel mass attacker. One of these attackers self-identified as an incel, telling police after the incident that he perpetrated his attack because he was frustrated at his inability to get a girlfriend.

Other attackers were “Red Pillers.”

Two attackers developed and posted related content online, including sharing tips on how to seduce women, discussing how to keep a woman “in check” at all times, and using language that objectified and demeaned women.

This is exactly what they talk about on “Red Pill” forums online and on social media.

The report concludes that “misogyny and domestic violence deserve increased attention from those tasked with mass violence prevention.” And from all of us. Many of these attacks could have been prevented if those observing concerning behavior had reported it to authorities. Misogyny is always a red flag.

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