By Kate Holland, Kieran McGuinness, Kerry McCallum

This report documents findings and recommendations from the ‘Understanding Gambling Harms in the Digital Age’ research project (2022-2024) funded by the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission’s Harm Prevention and Mitigation Fund. The research aimed to explore community knowledge and awareness of gambling harms and to develop an evidence base for public communication strategies to inform the Commission’s work in educating the public about gambling harm. 

Structure of the report
Section 2 reviews contemporary national and international research on gambling harm and the shift from what has been a focus on ‘problem gambling’ and ‘problem gamblers’ as the evidence base for the harmful effects of gambling, to a public health approach that recognises the full spectrum of gambling harms within the community. This includes any negative outcomes of gambling behaviour impacting on financial, relationship, health, emotional, work, cultural or criminal circumstances of the gambler or those associated with the gambler. The report discusses evidence regarding the prevalence and types of harms of different modes of gambling, attitudes and beliefs about gambling and gambling harm, gambling advertising and different harm prevention and communication strategies.Sections 3 and 4 focus on the research findings which show many participants view gambling as harmful to the community but they also recognise that gambling is a normalised activity and part of everyday life, work, social and family relationships for many people. Many believe gambling advertising normalises gambling as a fun and social activity and support further restrictions in this area. Participants tend to associate harm from gambling with financial and relationship harms, extreme consequences and addiction. Stereotypes about who experiences gambling harm were evident and stigma was seen as a barrier that may prevent people from recognising harm, talking about it and seeking help. Section 5 of the report details findings of the final phase of the research, which involved developing and testing messages about gambling harm based on findings from earlier research phases. The themes ‘gambling harm can affect anyone’ and ‘gambling products, services and advertising are designed to keep you spending’ had the most engagement, resonance and impact with focus group participants. We discuss elements of gambling harm messages that worked and why. The final section of the report synthetises the research findings and provides 10 recommendations and advice on messaging content, design and implementation to assist the Commission in its efforts to reduce gambling harm through public health communication and education activities.

Canberra: University of Canberra, 2024.

By Yasmine Wong
The UK Home Office recently announced that it is considering treating extreme misogyny (i.e., hatred of or prejudice against women) as a form of extremism following an ongoing review of the government’s counter-extremism strategy. The government believes that misogyny is an ideological trend that is gaining traction and fuelling extremism in the country.At the centre of this phenomenon is the “manosphere” – a networked group of online communities promoting “anti-feminism, misogyny, and hateful ideas” about women and sexual minorities. Groups like “Incels” (involuntary celibates) and “Men’s Rights Activists” famously make up the manosphere. They have a violent and extremist edge and portray men as victims in a world that they perceive to be benefitting women and other minorities.The manosphere has, unfortunately, crept into the mainstream through the popularisation and dissemination of misogynistic narratives by social media personalities like Andrew Tate. That misogyny appears to be driving extremism and has the potential to cause societal polarisation suggests that it is no longer an ideological problem but has become a national security one.

Misogyny as a “Gateway Drug” to Violent Extremism

Far-right extremist attacks motivated by misogyny have surfaced in the last five years. In 2023, the perpetrator of the mall shooting in Allen, Texas, where eight people were killed, was found to have misogynistic, white supremacist and racist tendencies. In 2021, the gunman who killed eight people (of which six were Asian women) in Atlanta was believed to have been motivated by misogynistic and racist inclinations. In 2020, a man in Hanau, Germany, went on a shooting rampage, killing nine people. He was thought to have also been motivated by similar tendencies.Researchers hypothesise that misogyny has become a “gateway drug” to far-right violent extremism. This happens when the ideological frame that blames women for individual and societal ills is expanded to include ethnic or religious “others”, opening the cognitive door to wider forms of hate-based and exclusionary extremism against different identity groups.For instance, the perceived existential threat posed by feminism and gender equality on men has been likened to the perceived existential threat that migrants pose to the white male identity as initially outlined in “great replacement” or “white genocide” conspiracies. In other words, far-right actors employ misogyny in intersection with racism and xenophobia, blaming women, migrants, and other minorities for the decline of traditional notions of nationhood, family, and masculinity.

Misogyny Has Crept Into the Mainstream

Misogyny is no longer confined to the fringes of subcultures and communities; it has crept into the mainstream. The rise of online personalities like Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson, Myron Gaines, and Walter Weekes, who peddle toxic masculinity, and misogynistic views, is a worrying trend. Tate, for example, exploits male fears about their economic futures and the threat to hegemonic masculinity. His social media content, often seen as “humorous” and “authentic”, serve as social currency among young men and boys.Social media algorithms are also complicit in the amplification of misogynistic content, pushing “toxic, hateful or misogynistic material” to young people (particularly boys suffering from anxiety and poor mental health) under the guise of entertainment. Researchers found a four-fold increase in misogynistic content recommended by TikTok’s algorithm over a five-day period of study, amping up to more extreme videos which focus on “anger and blame directed at women”.The results from a separate Australian study conducted in 2022 corroborate this, finding that algorithms used in YouTube and YouTube Shorts contributed to the promotion of “misogynistic, anti-feminist and other extremist content” to Australian boys and young men. A 2024 Irish study produced similar results – TikTok and YouTube recommended misogynist content to boys and young men regardless of whether they actively searched for it, with the intensity increasing according to the level of engagement.

Misogyny In Asia

In Asia, “male anger” allows misogynistic narratives and the broader extremist ideologies that they harbour to take root among a susceptible audience. In South Korea and Japan, there is an observed increase in misogynistic attacks inspired by elements of Incel ideology.In China, misogynistic terms and narratives similar to those used in Incel communities of the West are to be found in most social media platforms, with high-profile anti-feminist influencers like Zhu Zhou encouraging attacks against women who do not fulfil “reproductive duties”.In India, the flourishing Indian Incel community feeds off and exacerbates the misogyny already prevalent in Indian society, with violence meted out to women by men “who feel slighted or rejected by them”. Known as Currycels, Indian Incels believe that they are disadvantaged because of their race (as Indian women are thought to prefer White men) and that they are the victims of feminism.These examples appear to underscore the view that feminist progress and greater gender equality begets misogynistic backlash. It also raises the question of whether such misogyny will give rise to far-right extremism and violence in the future.

Implications for Singapore

While the popularity of manosphere content has not been ascertained in Singapore, local online spaces, particularly local Reddit communities and forums like HardwareZone and Sammyboy, do play host to misogynistic narratives. The narratives, particularly those that feature the privileges of women at the expense of men, have been observed to mirror narratives found in the manosphere.In r/Singapore (a community where Reddit users discuss topics relating to Singapore), users lament about institutions such as the Singapore legal system and national service favouring women and disadvantaging men. They argue that Singaporean women are not oppressed, which justifies ire against feminism and gender equality.A study conducted by the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) found a host of misogyny in Singapore’s social media space, with content ranging from outright expressions of violence against women to narratives that reinforce gender stereotypes, with the most common being comments that belittled and objectified women. Misogynistic content was also found to have higher levels of engagement.The 2024 Ipsos survey found that almost half of Singaporeans think efforts toward women’s equality have gone so far that they now occur at the expense of men. Notably, men echo these statements at a far higher rate than women. Similarly, the results of a 2022 Ipsos survey conducted in Singapore mirror those of the 2024 study, where one in three Singaporean men believed that feminism does more harm than good, and that “traditional masculinity is under threat”, with a quarter denying the existence of gender inequality.While there may not be reported cases of misogyny directly leading to instances of far-right extremism in Singapore, this idea of “traditional masculinity being under threat” evokes concerning parallels with misogynistic narratives that serve as rallying calls in far-right spaces.Furthermore, Singapore remains highly connected to the Internet, and a survey revealed that online misogyny is commonplace. It also reported that six in ten young people spoke of being exposed to sensitive content (including gender-based hate) without searching for it. The proliferation of misogynistic (and incel-adjacent) narratives online may be an indication that conditions exist that are conducive for such extremist ideologies to take root here.

Conclusion

Regardless of how misogyny and the gender divide present themselves, the resultant impact is the same – the exacerbation of polarisation along intersecting identity lines and the rise of extremism. Rather than normalising the gender divide and misogynistic attitudes, it is imperative to understand the risks associated with the global growth of misogyny, not just in its insidious role in violent extremism, but also its potential to damage the social fabric.

Singapore,  S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS),   2024. 4p.

By Katie Lazaro with Luigi De Martino, Olivia Denonville, Nathalie Fauvarque, Nicolas Florquin, and Lionel Kosirnik, with inputs from Small Arms Survey staff members and consultants.

The year 2023 was significant for a number of reasons. It saw the conclusion of Daniel de Torres’ successful stewardship as director of the Small Arms Survey, and so we thank him for his dedicated service to the Survey over the last four years. This year also marked the final year of the Survey’s five-year strategy and the completion of significant projects such as Strengthening Implementation and Enforcement of the Arms Embargo on North Korea, as well as the announcement of Mark Downes' appointment as the Survey’s new director.  For the Survey, it was a year underlined by innovation, with in-depth regional studies on the socio-economic costs of armed violence in the Caribbean, the trafficking of improvised explosive device components in West Africa, and arms proliferation in Afghanistan, as well as an update to the Global Violent Deaths database. More worryingly for the arms control and armed violence reduction agendas, 2023 saw the reversal of progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 16.1. With increases in conflict-related deaths around the world (including in occupied Palestinian territory, Sudan, and Ukraine), ongoing challenges to real-world implementation of legal arms control measures designed to prevent gender-based violence in parts of Latin America, and the ever-increasing threat of privately made firearms—ranging from artisanal weapons to 3D printed firearms—this past year could be described as a turning point for our agenda.

Geneva, SWIT: Small Arms Survey, 2024. 23p.

By André Brock, Jr.

From BlackPlanet to #BlackGirlMagic, Distributed Blackness places Blackness at the very center of internet culture. André Brock Jr. claims issues of race and ethnicity as inextricable from and formative of contemporary digital culture in the United States. Distributed Blackness analyzes a host of platforms and practices (from Black Twitter to Instagram, YouTube, and app development) to trace how digital media have reconfigured the meanings and performances of African American identity. Brock moves beyond widely circulated deficit models of respectability, bringing together discourse analysis with a close reading of technological interfaces to develop nuanced arguments about how “Blackness” gets worked out in various technological domains.

As Brock demonstrates, there’s nothing niche or subcultural about expressions of Blackness on social media: internet use and practice now set the terms for what constitutes normative participation. Drawing on critical race theory, linguistics, rhetoric, information studies, and science and technology studies, Brock tabs between Black-dominated technologies, websites, and social media to build a set of Black beliefs about technology. In explaining Black relationships with and alongside technology, Brock centers the unique joy and sense of community in being Black online now.

New York: NYU Press, 2020 266p.

By Megan K. McBride, Zack Gold, Pamela G. Faber, and Kaia Haney With contributions by William Rosenau and Alexander Powell

Concern about extremism in the military did not begin with the January 6 insurrection on the US Capitol, but media reporting on the issue increased in the wake of the attack, which ensured the kind of sustained attention that is often necessary to compel action. On February 5, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin directed a force-wide stand-down to address the problem. He also asked the Countering Extremism Working Group to update the Department of Defense (DOD) definition of extremist activities, update training modules so that transitioning servicemembers are aware that they might be targeted for recruitment by extremist organizations, and review the screening questions for new recruits in order to solicit information about extremist behavior. As part of a CNA-initiated project to examine past efforts to address extremism in the US military, we identified a number of interesting parallels between this issue and the problem of sexual harassment and sexual assault. The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain these parallels, and to identify lessons that DOD should learn from its past experiences trying to address sexual harassment and assault in the context of its current challenge with racial extremism. Critically, we are not arguing that DOD’s approach to sexual harassment and sexual assault has been successful. Nor are we arguing that sexual harassment, sexual assault, and racial extremism are equivalent or comparable violations. Our argument is more modest: DOD’s approach to sexual harassment and sexual assault contains elements that are relevant to the problem of racial extremism and could provide a foundation on which to identify both helpful and unhelpful ways of approaching this issue.

Arlington, VA: CNA, 2021. 72p.

By Manfred Halpern

Defensive Aggressiveness: Groups may retreat to defensive aggressiveness, risking repression of individual consciousness and creativity.

Group vs. Individual: True societal transformation requires new individual consciousness and creativity, not just group victories.

Racism and Ideologies: Racism is compared to other ideologies like nationalism and revolution, showing how they can become reified and lead to incoherence.

Global Comparisons: The document compares the capacity of different societies, including American and African Blacks, to deal with continuity,change, collaboration, conflict, and justice in the face of incoherence.

Race and Nations Monograph Series, 1970, 41 pages

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By John E. Tropman

Dualistic Perspective on Values: The book explores the idea that values come in pairs of partially contradictory concepts, such as permission and control.

Alcohol in American Society: It examines the historical shifts in attitudes toward alcohol in the U.S., highlighting the cyclical nature of permission and control.

Cultural and Social Systems: The interaction between social and cultural systems is discussed, emphasizing how changes in one can lead to changes in the other.

Permission/Control Balance: The book delves into the balance between permissions and control in society, particularly in the context of alcohol use.

University Press of America, 1986, 105 pages

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By Murray Clark Havens, Carl Leiden & Karl M. Schmitt

Nature of Assassination: The book explores the definition, scope, andstate of knowledge on political assassinations, emphasizing their impact on political systems.

Case Studies: It includes detailed case studies of notable assassinations,such as Martin Luther King Jr., Henrik Verwoerd, and Patrice Lumumba,analyzing the assassins, conspiracies, and impacts.

Impact Analysis: The authors discuss the varying impacts of assassinations, from negligible to destructive, on political systems,personnel, and policies.

Research Challenges: The book highlights the difficulties in studying assassinations, including data collection and interpretation, and calls for further research in this area.

Prentice-Hall, 1970, 174 pages

By Jake Addams

Social Service and Progressive Party: The document discusses the role of Hull-House in social reform and its connection to larger movements,including the Progressive Party and various social surveys.

Efforts for Peace: It highlights efforts for peace during World War I,including the Woman's International Peace Congress and the FordPeace Ship.

Immigration and Quota Acts: The document examines the impact of immigration policies and quota acts on families and communities,emphasizing the challenges faced by immigrants.

Education and Integration: It underscores the importance of education in integrating immigrants and the role of settlements in providing educational opportunities.

Macmillan, 1930, 413 pages

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By Carol J. Adams

Feminist-Vegetarian Connection: The book explores the interconnections between feminism and vegetarianism, arguing that both movements challenge patriarchal structures and the oppression of animals and women.

Patriarchal Culture: It discusses how patriarchal culture authorizes the eating of animals and links this to male dominance and control.

Historical Context: The book provides a historical analysis of vegetarianism and its ties to feminist movements, particularly from the1790s to the present.

Cultural Critique: It critiques how meat consumption is embedded in cultural norms and language, reinforcing gender roles and violence.

Continuum, 2000, 256 pages

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By Samuel E. Wallace

Two Ways of Living: The document contrasts two lifestyles within the economic system: one bound by societal obligations and the other, amore carefree, nomadic existence.

Skid Row Research: The author conducted extensive research on skidrow, including participant observation and interviews, to understand the community's way of life.

Historical Context: Skid row has been a subject of study for over a century, with numerous empirical studies, biographies, and programmatic statements documenting its existence and the lives of its inhabitants.

References: The document contains many references to previous studies, reports, and literature on skid row and related topics.

Bedminster Press, 1965, 219 pages

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By Leon Ray Livingston

Book Overview: "The Trail of the Tramp" by Leon Ray Livingston, also known as A-No. 1, is a narrative based on the author's own experiences as a tramp.

Content Summary: The book includes various chapters detailing different aspects of tramp life, such as "The Harvester," "TheSamaritans," and "The Wages of Sin is Death."

Publication Details: This edition was republished in 2010 using Print onDemand technology, which may result in typos or missing text due to the condition of the original book.

Availability: The book can be purchased from newsagents, train stations, and book stores, and a free digital copy is available on the publisher's website.

A-No. 1 publishing Company, 1913, 71 pages

By Pamela G. Faber, Megan K. McBride, Sarah Fusco, and Cheryl B. Rosenblum

The unfolding COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the wide-ranging disruption that nontraditional threats such as pandemics can have on the US economy, military, diplomatic corps, and national security apparatus. The US, its partners, and its competitors have tried to curb the spread of the virus by closing schools, workplaces, social gathering spots, and borders. Militaries have scaled back operations, postponed exercises, and curtailed engagements. Economic futures remain uncertain. Low‑income workers in industrialized countries have been disproportionately affected by rolling shutdowns and stay-at-home orders, and wealth inequality is increasing. Social interactions, such as religious gatherings, family celebrations, athletic activities, and concerts have been forced online or suspended. For many, extended periods of isolation and loneliness are a hidden side effect of the virus, with experts predicting a mental health crisis to come. Although the vaccine rollout is underway in many parts of the world, it will be many more months—possibly years—before the entire global population is vaccinated and a return to “normal” becomes possible. The pandemic, moreover, has affected both violent extremist organization (VEO) operations and US capacity to conduct counterterrorism (CT)  intelligence gathering, analysis, and activities. It has increased global instability—political, economic, and social—which will almost certainly benefit terrorist and extremist groups. Jihadi movements such as ISIS and far-right groups such as the Russian Imperial Movement thrive in environments of uncertainty and chaos. COVID-19 has contributed to instability and expanded opportunities for VEOs to recruit and operate. Accordingly, there has been an observable uptick in VEO activity in places such as sub-Saharan Africa, West Africa, Iraq, and Syria; in addition, movements such as ISIS and Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) have adjusted their rhetoric by claiming that the virus is divine punishment for unbelievers. In the US, citizen frustration with COVID-19 mitigation efforts drove (thwarted) attacks against public officials in New Mexico, a hospital in Missouri, and police headquarters in Orlando, Florida, and extremists have also encouraged followers to disrupt National Guard activities. In addition to COVID-related violence in the US, rising political unrest, including the January 6, 2021, storming of the US Capitol, has drawn attention to domestic security issues.

Arlington, VA: CNA, 2021. 26p.

By Pamela G. Faber, Megan K. McBride, Julia McQuaid, Emily Mushen, Alexander Powell, William G. Rosenau and Elizabeth Yang With contributions by Megan Katt and Annaleah Westerhaug

The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict – Stability and Humanitarian Affairs (OASD (SO/LIC-SHA)) asked  CNA to study the role of women and gender in both violent extremist organizations (VEOs) and US counterterrorism (CT) and counter violent extremism (CVE)  operations (hereafter CT/CVE). This request emerged from the recognition that greater understanding of the role of gender and women in CT/CVE operations is necessary as mandated in section 1047 of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and in accordance with the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Act of 2017. This study addresses the following research questions: 

• What roles do women play in VEOs organizationally and operationally? 

• How have these roles shifted over time, and how might they evolve in the short and long terms?

• What are the existing Department of Defense (DOD) and Special Operations Forces (SOF) approaches and policies regarding gender and CT/CVE? 

• What opportunities are presented to DOD, and SOF in particular, through increased consideration of gender in CT/CVE? What are the risks of failing to do so? 

• How should the US factor the role of gender into future CT/CVE operations, training, and education?

To carry this out, we developed a three-part approach: 

• Identified the roles of women and gender in VEOs through nine case studies: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People’s Army, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Al-Shabaab, National Socialist Underground and National Action (two white supremacist groups in Europe), Boko Haram, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Lord’s Resistance Army, and Abu Sayyaf Group.

• Assessed whether current US DOD CT/CVE strategy, policy, and activities incorporate gender considerations.

• Identified gaps, risks, and opportunities according to four thematic categories: strategy, policy and doctrine, internal activities,1 external activities, and conceptual understanding.

Our findings demonstrate that women play supporting, enabling, and operational roles in VEOs, and that there is no deliberate or coordinated effort to integrate these roles into CT/CVE strategy, policy, or activities.

Arlington, VA: CNA, 2021. 232p.

By William Rosenau, Megan McBride

The alleged participation of off-duty law enforcement personnel in the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol has generated fresh interest in the broader issue of police participation in right-wing extremist groups and activities. Such extremism poses obvious but significant challenges for police agencies and their  communities. It can undermine the rule of law, damage police morale, compromise investigations, hinder successful prosecutions, and disrupt relationships between the police and the communities they serve (particularly communities of color). In the words of one police captain, “whenever the police department shirks its unbiased responsibility. . .the community then is in for real trouble.” Although we know that there are right-wing extremists among the nation’s 800,000 law enforcement officers, we do not know the extent of that presence or the most common ideologies. We also lack a detailed understanding of the strategies and tactics right-wing extremists use to infiltrate and recruit within police ranks and the extent to which the extremist presence may imperil investigations, including those concerning criminal extremist activities. In addition, while much has been made of the threat posed by intentional infiltrations, a potentially greater concern is the organic and gradual radicalization of those already on the force. This paper provides an overview of the current state of knowledge about police officer engagement in rightwing extremism, including the sustained use of racist, misogynistic, and homophobic language and stereotyping, both online and offline. After surveying the contemporary right-wing extremist landscape, this paper uses publicly available sources to explore in a preliminary way aspects of extremist penetration and recruitment, pre-employment screening challenges, police participation in extremist activity, and the role of social media platforms and the internet in enabling extremism. The paper concludes with a set of analytical questions that practitioners and policy-makers must answer if they hope to mitigate the rightwing extremist threat. 

Arlington, VA: CNA, 2021. 9p

By Alison L. Cammack, Mark R. Stevens, Rebecca B. Naumann, Jing Wang, Wojciech Kaczkowski, Jorge Valderrama, Deborah M. Stone, Robin Lee,

What is already known about this topic?

In 2022, approximately 49,000 persons died by suicide in the United States. A comprehensive approach that addresses health-related community factors, such as health care access, social and community context, and economic stability, could help prevent suicide.

What is added by this report?

Suicide rates were lowest in counties with the highest health insurance coverage, broadband Internet access, and income. These factors were more strongly associated with lower suicide rates in some groups that are disproportionately affected by suicide.

What are the implications for public health practice?

Implementing programs, practices, and policies that improve the conditions in which persons are born, grow, live, work, and age might be an important component of suicide prevention efforts. Decision-makers, government agencies, and communities can work together to address community-specific needs and save lives.

MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. ePub: 10 September 2024. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7337e1.

By T. Markus Funk

Determining an offender’s criminal culpability is an evergreen challenge. It demands a careful blending of the offender’s moral responsibility for the crime and the offense’s identifiable harmful impacts on its individual victims and on society. Far from a mere abstract or occasional theoretical exercise, this process represents a critical iterative stage before charges can be filed, findings of legal guilt rendered, or sentences imposed.

Prosecutors, judges, and other participants in the criminal justice system manage millions of criminal cases a year. In each instance, they must grapple with the weighty responsibility of determining an offender's criminal accountability and blameworthiness. The decisions made in these deliberations have profound real-world consequences. They affect not only individual cases but also influence broader societal morality and cohesion. Indictments are issued, guilty verdicts pronounced, prison sentences handed down, and punishments justified based on these intrinsically imprecise and largely retrospective assessments.

This Article contends that the current mainstream approach to criminal culpability takes an unnecessarily narrow view. More specifically, it argues that criminal conduct involves two distinct forms of injury to the victim. One form of injury, physical or emotional harm to victims, is widely acknowledged. However, the other form, the wronging by imposing unequal standing on the victim, has been unjustly overlooked, with significant societal implications.

Our current failure to properly account for the antisocial self-elevation inherent in almost all crimes as a separate and distinct injury has significant implications. It prevents us from accurately describing the crime that was committed, the offense’s full spectrum of adverse impacts on the victim and society, or why a particular punishment is appropriate. More importantly, a justice system that fails to effectively protect our equal standing and associated legal interests virtually ensures that the erosion of the rule of law will soon follow.

Reevaluating how we define and publicly articulate criminal culpability holds the promise of positive real-world impacts. By more effectively communicating the full extent of an offender’s injury to a victim and society, we materially enhance criminal punishment’s crucial expressive, evaluative, descriptive, and conduct-directing objectives. From a systemic perspective, the proposed victim-centric approach advances the justice system’s ability to foster the equality-supporting civic bonds and shared social norms essential for a thriving society.

By: Ximena Canal Laiton

LGBTIQ+ people on the move in Latin America can face significant risks of targeted violence and discrimination related to their sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression. This paper explores the experiences of LGBTIQ+ individuals travelling towards the United States from Latin America and the Caribbean. Data was gathered in Tijuana, Monterrey and Mexico City (Mexico) through the 4Mi project between September 2023 and March 2024.

Findings are based on 474 in-person surveys, with 131 LGBTIQ+ individuals and 343 non-LGBTIQ+ individuals to compare their migration experiences, along with 15 interviews with LGBTIQ+ migrants and key informants.

Highlights

LGBTIQ+ phobia, discrimination and violence: a driver for migration

LGBTIQ+ individuals often migrate to escape discrimination and violence related to their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC).

LGBTIQ+ phobia and violence on the migration route

Nearly all LGBTIQ+ individuals surveyed (98% of 131 respondents) indicated a high or very high level of exposure to risks related to their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC).

91% of LGBTIQ+ respondents surveyed (119 of 131 respondents) said they experienced some form of LGBTIQ+ phobic incident themselves during their migration, mainly in Mexico and Guatemala.

Attacks against trans-women migrants were reported as relatively frequent by interviewees. They also said that attacks sometimes culminate in transfemicide or attempted transfemicide.

Surveyed trans women reported more frequent experiences of social discrimination than other LGBTIQ+ respondents.

Disparity in Perpetrators of Violence

Organised crime: LGBTIQ+ respondents identified members of organised crime groups as primary perpetrators of abuse to a far greater extent (73%) than the non-LGBTIQ+ group (42%).

Migrant perpetrators: While 38% of LGBTIQ+ respondents reported other migrants as the main perpetrators, only 5% of the non-LGBTIQ+ control group did the same. This difference can be attributed to the widespread presence of LGBTIQ+ phobia across diverse groups, including among migrants themselves.

Self-protection strategies

The two most common self-protection strategies reported by LGBTIQ+ respondents were careful planning of journeys and keeping in regular contact with friends and family.

Safe Space and other needs

LGBTIQ+ migrant interviewees and key informants stressed that access to safe spaces and shelters is essential for the protection of life and dignity of LGBTIQ+ individuals on the migration route. Psychological support is also a pressing necessity.

Methodology

Quantitative data was based on 474 in-person surveys conducted with individuals in transit in Mexico towards the United States. This included 131 individuals who identified as LGBTIQ+ and 343 individuals who didn’t. This allowed to draw comparisons between the migration experiences of the two groups.

Qualitative data was collected through 15 semi-structured interviews in Mexico: eight interviews with LGBTIQ+ migrants and seven with key informants from organisations that assist LGBTIQ+ migrants and refugees.

Geneva, SWIT: Mixed Migration Centre, 2024. 24p.

By Olivia Brown , Laura G. E. Smith, Brittany I. Davidson, Daniel Racek, and Adam Joinson

Psychological theories of mobilization tend to focus on explaining people’s motivations for action, rather than mobilization (“activation”) processes. To investigate the online behaviors associated with mobilization, we compared the online communications data of 26 people who subsequently mobilized to right-wing extremist action and 48 people who held similar extremist views but did not mobilize (N = 119,473 social media posts). In a three-part analysis, involving content analysis (Part 1), topic modeling (Part 2), and machine learning (Part 3), we showed that communicating ideological or hateful content was not related to mobilization, but rather mobilization was positively related to talking about violent action, operational planning, and logistics. Our findings imply that to explain mobilization to extremist action, rather than the motivations for action, theories of collective action should extend beyond how individuals express grievances and anger, to how they equip themselves with the “know-how” and capability to act.  

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 1–20, 2024.  

By Sarah J. Jackson

Shifting understandings and ongoing conversations about race, celebrity, and protest in the twenty-first century call for a closer examination of the evolution of dissent by black celebrities and their reception in the public sphere. This book focuses on the way the mainstream and black press have covered cases of controversial political dissent by African American celebrities from Paul Robeson to Kanye West. Jackson considers the following questions: 1) What unique agency is available to celebrities with racialized identities to present critiques of American culture? 2) How have journalists in both the mainstream and black press limited or facilitated this agency through framing? What does this say about the varying role of journalism in American racial politics? 3) How have framing trends regarding these figures shifted from the mid-twentieth century to the twenty-first century? Through a series of case studies that also includes Eartha Kitt, Sister Souljah, and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Jackson illustrates the shifting public narratives and historical moments that both limit and enable African American celebrities in the wake of making public politicized statements that critique the accepted racial, economic, and military systems in the United States.

New York; London: Routledge, 2014. 218p.