Murderous Socialization: A Theoretical Exploration of Extreme Violence

• In Event: Comparative-Historical Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Comparative-Historical Roundtable 2

Abstract

Despite decades of criminological inquiry, there remains a deficit in explaining the motives behind extreme violence, or violence that goes beyond what is necessary to subdue a victim or neutralize a threat to the offender. Traditional criminological theories often frame these acts as either instrumental or reactive and emphasize the outcomes of the violence driven in many cases by the pathologies of the individual offender. These may be revenge, emotional release, or sexual gratification. They thus assume that the victim’s death or subjugation is the offender’s primary objective. However, such explanations often fail to explain the unnecessary cruelty and excess that characterize some of the most brutal crimes.
We argue that it is essential to understand extreme violence as both an affective and experiential process for the offender. Synthesizing insights from criminology, symbolic interactionism and feminist theory and examining cases of extreme violence in the postwar US and Soviet Union, we show that many cases of extreme violence function as a socially-conditioned performative acts through which individuals experience transformation, moral justification, and intensified feelings of power connected to gendered behavior norms. Crucially, the significance of this violence lies in the meaning that the offender attributes to the process of the violence itself. Our research suggests that extreme violence is frequently driven by its socially-conditioned performative elements, rooted in the gendered socialization patterns of postwar societies.

Authors

• Alexander J. Myers, Washburn University

• Alina Vetrova, Washburn University