Last Friday—in another chapter of a tragic pattern—22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people and wounded more in Isla Vista, California. Rodger also left a manifesto on YouTube in which he laid out his plan to take revenge on women who “shunned him.” The video sparked national conversation over the weekend, including the twitter hashtag #YesAllWomen to share stories of daily gendered and sexual harassment women face. Mass shootings are rare, but the culture that creates them is not. Researchers find strong elements of masculine gender performance in many of these acts—with young men attempting to assert power through violence.
The kind of attack carried out by Rodger closely matches researchers’ profile of other shooters—a clear, sustained pattern of challenges to their masculine identities. They do not just “snap,” but are shaped over time by the way our society polices gender.
- Katherine Newman, Cybelle Fox, David J. Harding, Jal Mehta, & Wendy Roth. 2005. Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings. New York: Basic Books.
- Jack Levin & Eric Madfis. 2009. “Mass murder at school and cumulative strain: A sequential model.” American Behavioral Scientist, 52, 1227-1245.
- Michael Kimmel and Matthew Mahler. 2003. “Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia, and Violence: Random School Shootings, 1982-2001.” American Behavioral Scientist, 46(10): 1439-1458
- Adam Lankford. 2012. “A comparative analysis of suicide terrorists and rampage, workplace, and school shooters in the United States from 1990 to 2010.” Homicide Studies, 17, 255-274.
Feelings that lost masculinity can only be reclaimed through violence are tied to a broader pattern of threats against women. While there have been declines in violence against women and other crime over the past generation, violence against women remains an enormous problem in the United States and around the world.
- Manuel Eisner. “Long-term historical trends in violent crime.” Crime and Justice (2003): 83-142.
- Michael Planty, Lynn Langton, Christopher Krebs, Marcus Berzofsky, and Hope Smiley-McDonald. 2013. “Female Victims of Sexual Violence, 1994-2010.” Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.
- Claudia García-Moreno, Christina Pallitto, Karen Devries, Heidi Stöckl, Charlotte Watts, and Naeemah Abrahms. 2013. Global and regional estimates of violence against women: Prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence. World Health Organization. Geneva, Switzerland.
For more on the sociology of mass violence, check out this TSP Roundtable.
Comments 2
Carolyn Johnson (MsCarol) — September 14, 2014
As a researcher do you beleive we live in a mysoginistic society with a prevelant rape culture that causes every woman to live every moment of her life in rabid fear of men? Do you believe that when men are socializing rape is a common topic of discussion where rape is encouraged and rapists are celebrated? If this is true it is not a world I am familiar with or would want to live in. How does the United States compare to South Africa as a rape culture? Finally do you believe that a woman being catcalled (nonphysical contact) is equivalent to assault or rape? On social networks and in the blogosphere I see misandry everywhere and very little misogyny.
For instance where are the shelters for abused men? Where is the law that has mandatory arrest of women accused of assault? Why do women who have sex with boys serve very little time? Why is there such a sentencing disparity for men and women convicted of the same crime? Why are women favored in custody? Thank you.
FansCoolers — December 27, 2015
Create more gun-free zones, you’ll get higher death cuotns. For the life of me, I don't understand this type of statement. Here in Canada we have a firearm ownership rate of roughly 15% (1 out of 6 households own a gun), last year we had 170 homicides by shooting.In the US, where the ownership rate is closer to 45%, last year there were 8583 homicides by shooting.Anyway, I'm off to do my grocery shopping, and yes, I'm going to leave my door unlocked when I leave the house.