Somatic Pathways to Violence: Community, Family, and the State as Violent Socialization Institutions

• In Event: 50455 - Open Session on Issues in Peace, War and Social Conflict

Abstract

Through empirical investigation of two forms of violence in the United States, mass shootings and extremist violence, this research demonstrates that prior somatic experiences of violence in the context of community, family, and state institutions are violent socialization mechanisms preceding political or mass violence. Individuals exposed to violent social institutions (community, family, or state institutions) appear to acquire violent competences or dispositions—a violent habitus—which can later be activated in other contexts (Velitchkova 2022). Somatic experiences of institutionally situated violence thus constitute a critical step on individuals’ pathways to more or more intense forms of violence. Somatic experience of violence may even be close to a necessary condition for further engagement in violence, as 94% of U.S. mass shooters and 86% of U.S. violent extremists in the PIRUS dataset have a documented history of it. Not all individuals with somatic experience of violence necessarily engage in violence. Somatic experience of violence is thus not a sufficient condition for participation in violence. However, somatic experiences of community, family, and/or state violence significantly increase the likelihood of participating in political violence. Among U.S. extremists in the PIRUS dataset who have somatic experiences of violence, three quarters participate in violent acts. Somatic experiences of community, family, and state violence should therefore be considered potential risk factors for further engagement in more or more intense forms of violence. Further research is needed to assess how somatic experiences of violence interact with other factors to lead to violent acts and what prevention efforts may be effective in countering the impact of violent institutional socialization and in making social institutions less violent.

Author

• Ana Velitchkova, University of Mississippi