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As Americans continue to witness senseless violence throughout their communities, the rise of nihilistic violence is raising alarms for law enforcement as officials try to prevent attacks that often come without warning following a mass shooting in New York City that left four dead last month.
The concept of nihilistic violence – acts lacking an ideological motive and often driven by a need to gain approval in extremist online communities – remains a key conversation whenever a mass tragedy is carried out.
“Nihilistic violence is destruction for its own sake,” Jonathan Alpert, a New York City-based psychotherapist, told Fox News Digital. “It isn’t about money, ideology, or revenge; rather, it’s violence born of emptiness.”
“Other acts of violence, however twisted, usually have a motive that can be identified,” he said. “Nihilistic violence is different because the act itself is the message: a statement of meaninglessness, a way of saying ‘nothing matters, so I’ll be destructive.’”
In 2024, 65% of terrorist attacks carried out in Western countries were not associated with any belief system of the perpetrator, marking a significant rise when compared to data from previous years, according to the latest Global Terrorism Index.
The report acknowledges that a portion of the increase can be attributed to a lack of information regarding specific attacks; it also likely indicates a rise of “ideologically confused” acts of terrorism.
However, the inability to tie an attack to a well-defined belief system could represent a terrorist’s decision to combine numerous ideologies in an attempt to justify their acts of violence, according to the report.
“This approach complicates counterterrorism efforts,” the report states. “As it makes these actors unpredictable and harder to profile.”
The rise of random, unprovoked violence has also caught the attention of law enforcement.
The Department of Justice has named the concept “Nihilistic Violent Extremism” (NVE), while recently defining it as “criminal conduct within the United States and abroad, in furtherance of political, social, or religious goals that derive primarily from a hatred of society at large and a desire to bring about its collapse by sowing indiscriminate chaos, destruction, and social instability,” according to Just Security.
The DOJ’s definition points to a broader concept of nihilistic violence being carried out solely for the sake of committing an attack, with experts indicating a specific psychological profile is often consistent among perpetrators.
“The common thread is alienation and despair,” Alpert said. “These are people who feel invisible, powerless, or irrelevant. In that state, violence becomes a way to exist, to be noticed, to make a statement. It’s a perverse attempt to transform inner emptiness into outward impact.”
Wallace Chadwick, a Virginia police lieutenant and former gang detective, cites the difficulties law enforcement officers face when trying to get ahead of random violence before it is committed.
“It’s very difficult to predict things that are happening,” Chadwick told Fox News Digital. “With this random violence, [like if] you get somebody who shows up in Times Square with a firearm, it’s hard to predict.”
However, Chadwick also echoed the same sentiments regarding a common mental profile among attackers.
“These people have precursors,” Chadwick said. “I believe there’s somebody that knows that this person is disturbed [or] this person has made mention that they wanted to do something. It goes back to the rules, if you see something, say something.”
Regarding recent instances of nihilistic violence, Alpert looks to the July 28 mass shooting in a New York City office building that left four innocent people – along with the gunman – dead.
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While officials believe the shooting was rooted in the gunman’s feelings toward the NFL, while also revealing he traveled from Las Vegas to New York City to carry out the attack, Alpert points to the overall lack of agenda from the perpetrator.
“The randomness of the attack suggests this wasn’t about settling a score or advancing a cause,” Alpert told Fox News Digital. “It was despair projected outward.”
As data suggests an ongoing trend upward in randomized, nihilistic violence, Alpert said the looming threat of an attack is eroding Americans’ sense of safety within their communities.
“They’re more frightening because if there’s no motive, there’s no way to protect yourself,” he said. “Gang violence or political violence has targets. Nihilistic violence, by contrast, says anyone can be a victim, anywhere, at any time. That unpredictability shatters the sense of safety we rely on in public spaces.”
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