Murder and Extremism in the United States 2021

By Erin Dauphinais-Soos

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

In 2021, domestic extremists killed at least 29 people in the United States, in 19 separate incidents. This represents a modest increase from the 23 extremist-related murders documented in 2020 but is far lower than the number of murders committed in any of the five years prior (which ranged from 45 to 78).

The report provides additional insight on perpetrator affiliations, police officer killings, information on the perpetrators and incidents from 2021, an analysis of white supremacist killings in the United States from 2012-2021, and information on the PROTECT plan, ADL’s “seven-part plan to mitigate the threat posed by domestic extremism and domestic terrorism while protecting civil rights and civil liberties.”