Alexander: Indoctrinating and Radicalizing Mass Murderers

After three decades of researching the pathology of mass shooters, I’m convinced that four primary factors are almost universally associated with these murderers: a sociopathic predisposition; a history of violent media saturation that indoctrinates and desensitizes them; an opening to be self- or group-radicalized within an echo chamber of ideological influencers; and the means and opportunity to commit a mass attack. Most of the political and media focus has, predictably, been on the fourth factor — removing the means and opportunity. But this ignores the urgency and the systemic nature of the first three factors — the cultural factors.

More on these cultural factors after a brief summary of the two most recent attacks and the political response.

The mass murders in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, should concern all Americans. But our concern should be tempered by the reality that such attacks, while evoking highly emotive responses, are extremely rare in a country of 330 million people. Fortunately, they represent just a tiny fraction of our nation’s violent crime.

According to the FBI’s uniform crime reports on violent crime in 2018, the incidence of murder is declining, as are most other categories of crime. However, the public perception is that violent crime is on the rise and that “mass murders” are an almost daily occurrence. That perception is the result of the commercial wall-to-wall mass-media replays of sensational tragedies.

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