Winter, Christopher ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2267-8747 (2025) A Micro-Sociological Analysis of Emotions in Lone-Actor Terrorist Attacks. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

Over the last 20 years, lone-actor terrorism has increasingly haunted societies worldwide. These attacks have ranged from seemingly random knife assaults to meticulously planned operations targeting major government buildings. Despite the looming threat posed by lone-actor terrorists (LATs), relatively little scholarly attention has been devoted to understanding how their violence is emotionally enabled. This is surprising given the growing recognition within microsociology that emotions, and the situational dynamics that help shape them, are critical to the formation of violence. This question around how emotions impact violence is particularly salient for LATs, who lack the immediate presence of supportive co-offenders—a factor often essential in emotionally enabling extreme acts of violence. This dissertation employs a microsociological approach to investigate the emotional mechanisms enabling LATs to commit violence. At its core lies the research question: How are LATs emotionally enabled to inflict violence? This question is answered across the three parts of this thesis. Part 1 defines this study’s scope and establishes the theoretical foundations of the microsociology of violence. Part 2 focuses on the violent situation more specifically, exploring how situational configurations both shape and are shaped by the emotions of situational participants. This is achieved through a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses. The former approach uses the Lone Actor Terrorism Microsociological Database, a comprehensive dataset of lone-actor terrorism. This analysis helps to establish exactly what the problem of LAT violence is, with a focus on how situational configurations affect the ability of LATs to inflict violence. The latter half of Part 2 shifts to a qualitative examination of three cases of LAT violence. The analytical focus of these three case studies is on how emotions played a crucial role in influencing the progression and outcome of the situation. The findings demonstrate the significant impact that emotions have on the form and effectiveness of violence when committed by a LAT. Finally, in Part 3, the focus shifts to how LATs manage their emotions to overcome the inhibitive factors that are inherent in the commission of violence, particularly when acting alone. Several emotion management techniques are identified. The final chapter synthesises the findings, highlighting their implications for both lone-actor terrorism theory and microsociology, as well as how some of these findings may be operationalised. By exploring LAT violence using a microsociological framework, this research provides deeper insight into how individual terrorists can commit acts of extreme violence. It also sheds light on the factors that can inhibit such violence and provides several operational considerations that may be relevant to security services looking to prevent lone-actor terrorism.

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