EXTREMISMMurder and Extremism in the U.S.

Each year, people in the United States are killed by individuals with ties to extreme movements and ideologies. Domestic extremists of many types pose significant problems in the U.S., from incitement and harassment to hate crimes and terrorism, but reliable data is often scarce.

In recent years, extremists from the far right (such as white nationalists or sovereign citizens), the far left (such as Black nationalists or anarchists), Islamist extremist movements, and other, more obscure causes or groups have all committed murders in the United States.

The ADL’s Center on Extremism (COE) has released a new report, Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2023, which analyzes murders committed by extremists in the United States in 2023.

Here are three sections from the report – Executive Summary, Death and Extremism, and Policy Recommendations:

Executive Summary

·  Every year, individuals with ties to different extreme causes and movements kill people in the United States; the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) tracks these murders. Extremists regularly commit murders in the service of their ideology, to further a group or gang they may belong to, or even while engaging in traditional, non-ideological criminal activities.

·  In 2023, domestic extremists killed at least 17 people in the U.S., in seven separate incidents. This represents a sharp decrease from the 27 extremist-related murders ADL has documented for 2022—which itself was a decrease from the 35 identified in 2021. It continues a trend of fewer extremist-related killings after a five-year span of 47-79 extremist-related murders per year (2015-2019). One reason for the trend is the decrease in recent years of extremist-related killings by domestic Islamist extremists and left-wing extremists.

·  The 2023 murder totals include two extremist-related shootings sprees, both by white nationalists, which together accounted for 11 of the 17 deaths. A third shooting spree, also by an apparent white nationalist, wounded several people but luckily did not result in fatalities.

·  All the extremist-related murders in 2023 were committed by right-wing extremists of various kinds, with 15 of the 17 killings involving perpetrators or accomplices with white nationalist connections. This is the second year in a row that right-wing extremists have been connected to all identified extremist-related killings.

·  Two of the incidents from 2023 involved women playing some role in the killing or its aftermath. This report includes a special section that examines the role played by women in deadly extremist violence in the United States by analyzing 50 incidents from the past 20 years in which women were involved in some fashion in extremist-related killings.

Death and Extremism
Each year, people in the United States are killed by individuals with ties to extreme movements and ideologies. Often, these deaths go largely unnoticed except by families and friends of victims, but some killings—such as mass shootings—can shock the nation.