Somatic Learning of Violence As a Type of Negative Social Capital Accumulation in the Case of Mass Violence in the United States

This study examines violent forms of participation in the United States, including mass shootings and acts defined as political terror. It proposes somatic learning as a type of negative social capital accumulation. Individuals exposed to violence in the context of various social institutions, most notably the family, the community, and the state, can acquire embodied capacities to engage in violence if they are triggered. Violent institutional culture can become violent embodied culture through somatic learning of violence. This argument is based on an embodied theory of violence I have proposed elsewhere (Velitchkova 2022). To examine the argument empirically, the study analyzes several data sources with information on violent participation in the United States. First, the study relies on a census of perpetrators of mass shootings collected by the Violence Project. The study provides descriptive statistics for variables associated with somatic learning of violence in the family, in the community, and through interactions with state agencies. The results indicate that in 95% of mass shooting cases in the United States, the perpetrator had acquired violent capital through interactions in the family, in the community, and/or with the state. In most remaining cases, perpetrators had severe mental illness and were in crisis. To further examine the theory, the study will also analyze the PIRUS dataset of extremist radicalization, which contains information on both violent and nonviolent individuals associated with organizations considered to be “extremist.” The study will consider the implications of a somatic learning mechanism in the development of negative social capital. It will also provide recommendations for violence mitigation efforts in the context of families, communities, and violent state agencies.

References:

Velitchkova, Ana. 2022. "Institutionalized Behavior, Morality and Domination: A Habitus in Action Model of Violence." Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 52:2-21.