Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2020
Abstract
Drawing upon in-depth life-history interviews with 91 North American-based former white supremacists, we examine how participants perceive homicidal violence as either an appropriate or inappropriate political strategy. Based on the current findings, participants considered homicidal violence as largely inappropriate due to moral concerns and its politically ineffective nature but also discussed how homicidal violence could be an appropriate defensive measure in RAHOWA (Racial Holy War) or through divine mandate. Capturing how white supremacists frame the permissibility of homicidal violence is a step toward better understanding the “upper limit” or thresholds for violence among members who are trying to construct and negotiate a collective identity that involves violent and aggressive worldviews.
Recommended Citation
Windisch, S., Simi, P., Blee, K. M., & DeMichele, M. (2020). On the permissibility of homicidal violence: Perspectives from former U.S. white supremacists. Perspectives on Terrorism, 14(6), 65–76. https://pt.icct.nl/article/permissibility-homicidal-violence-perspectives-former-us-white-supremacists
Peer Reviewed
1
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
American Politics Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Terrorism Studies Commons
Comments
This article was originally published in Perspectives on Terrorism, volume 14, issue 6, in 2020.