{"id":31056,"date":"2021-08-27T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T07:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?p=31056"},"modified":"2024-04-15T13:22:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T12:22:07","slug":"the-lies-we-tell-about-men-who-kill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/political-parties-and-ideologies\/feminism\/the-lies-we-tell-about-men-who-kill\/","title":{"rendered":"The lies we tell about men who kill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

‘He just snapped’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone who pays attention to news reports on men who kill has heard this phrase. It is used as part of a narrative that frames male violence as a \u2018loss of control\u2019, the perpetrator, previously a quiet man who kept himself to himself, is said to have \u2018just snapped one day’. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story is used to explain away a whole swathe of violent crimes, diverting our attention away from patriarchal violence and pointing the finger at poor mental health. To take just one example, in 2017, when Stephen Paddock killed over 50 people in the biggest mass shooting by a lone shooter in US history, his brother told the media<\/a>, \u2018he was just a guy. Something happened, he snapped or something.\u2019 Paddock\u2019s motives were never fully understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 12 August 2021, the UK has also been grappling with its first mass shooting in ten years. The killer\u2019s identity was quickly revealed and it wasn\u2019t long before people started using social media to make sense of his actions. Why did 22-year-old Plymouth man Jake Davidson murder<\/a> his mother, before taking to the street and killing four others?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public debate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With the police investigation ongoing, debate on social and mainstream media has been widespread. And yet the simple fact remains that membership of the male sex is more of a unifying characteristic among mass shooters than any particular mental health diagnosis. According to US-based The Violence Project<\/em>, 98 per cent<\/a> of perpetrators are male. This is despite increased prevalence of mental illness among women<\/a>, who rarely commit mass shootings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public speculation on the mental health of mass shooters not only perpetuates the harmful stereotype that mentally ill people are dangerous, but it lets violent men off the hook. It also sidelines difficult conversations about the valorisation of male displays of ‘strength’ and the entitlement that this seemingly gives men over the bodies of women and girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speculation on the mental health of mass murders perpetuates harmful stereotypes that mentally ill people are dangerous \u2013\u00a0and lets violent men off the hook<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much has been made of Jake Davidson reportedly being an \u2018incel\u2019<\/a>, short for \u2018involuntarily celibate\u2019, the name of a subculture of predominantly white, heterosexual men who bond with other men on websites such as 4Chan<\/em> and Reddit<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incels are united in their belief that feminism is responsible for their lack of sexual activity. Feeling that they are \u2018denied\u2019 their right to sex by women, some have gone on to perpetrate acts of vengeful violence. Some now believe that \u2018incel attacks\u2019 should be categorised as a form of terrorism.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond inceldom<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

However, inceldom is not the only form male entitlement can take. It doesn\u2019t seem that Stephen Paddock was an incel, but sexist entitlement and aggression towards women and girls can be found in his biography. Paddock was known for his domineering behaviour<\/a> towards his younger girlfriend while a sex worker told the media that he had paid to act out violent sexual fantasies<\/a>. Child pornography was also discovered<\/a> on Paddock\u2019s computer after the shootings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newcastle bodybuilder Raoul Moat, was also an openly abusive partner who raped and beat his girlfriends<\/a>. One of whom would be among the victims of his headline-making rampage in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar backstories can be found among many mass shooters. Yet media reports often only mention their histories of harming women in passing, putting more focus instead on speculation about mental health. This is despite evidence that mental illness symptoms \u2018by themselves rarely cause violent behavior<\/a> and thus cannot reliably predict it\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also know that a history of perpetrating domestic violence is a risk factor for carrying out a mass shooting. In one study<\/a> of mass shooters, 31 per cent had suspected domestic violence in their history. Also, domestic violence and mass shootings often overlap. Between 2009 and 2018, over half<\/a> of mass shootings were related to domestic or family violence\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raoul Moat and Jake Davidson\u2019s crimes both directly involved domestic violence. Davidson reportedly blamed his mother, Maxine, for his inability to find a girlfriend. When Raoul Moat shot his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart\u2019s new partner, Christopher Brown, he sought to punish Stobbart for leaving him for another man<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although most femicides are perpetrated by the victim\u2019s current or former partner, eight per cent are by the woman\u2019s son. Shockingly, mothers in the UK are more likely<\/a> to be killed by their own sons than by strangers. Maxine Davidson was the tenth<\/a> woman to be killed by her son in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preventative action<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Better recognition of the warning signs that precede men\u2019s lethal violence could put an end to the idea that these crimes are unpreventable. Professor Jane Monckton Smith\u2019s Homicide Timeline<\/a>, <\/u>based on analysis of 372 intimate partner killings, outlines eight identifiable \u2018stages\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The timeline is based on the idea that coercive control is the best predictor of homicide, with most killers having histories of controlling relationship behaviour (Stage 1), often cycling from this stage to the \u2018change of thinking\u2019 in Stage 6, where a potential killer chooses to start planning murder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mothers in the UK are more likely to be killed by their own sons than by strangers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By demonstrating that men who kill their partners usually do so as part of an escalation of controlling behaviour that compounds over time, Monckton\u2019s work helps us better understand why these crimes happen. Most importantly, life-saving intervention can occur at any stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately if society took misogyny more seriously, perhaps men like Jake Davidson, Raoul Moat, and Stephen Paddock could have been stopped before their violence became deadly. Making a diagnosis of misogyny is, of course, much easier than doing the work of dismantling patriarchy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the activism of second-wave feminists who politicised men\u2019s violence against women and built the women\u2019s refuge movement<\/a> serves as inspiration for contemporary campaigners. Our foremothers didn\u2019t eradicate male violence, but they built the foundations of today\u2019s fight for a world where it is no longer tolerated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No longer can we accept the idea that men who kill \u2018just snap\u2019, or that mental illness alone explains their actions. Their violence was a deadly escalation of the misogynistic aggression that lay in plain sight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mental health crisis is often used to explain mass murder. The framing only detracts attention from tackling misogyny and male violence, argues Alex Birch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":42959,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,685],"tags":[2874],"class_list":["post-31056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feminism","category-media","tag-alex-birch"],"yoast_head":"\nThe lies we tell about men who kill - Red Pepper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mental health crisis is often used to explain mass murder. 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