Involuntary celibates (incels) are part of the online ‘manosphere’ and have been widely discussed in contemporary media in recent years due to their involvement in several offline mass murders. This article presents empirical data that specifically map aspects of the incel worldview: the ‘black pill’. Analysis of online discussion forums demonstrates how incels believe society is ordered through a hetero-patriarchal racial hierarchy and justify their sexlessness through beliefs rooted in biological determinism and victimisation by women and feminism. It is argued that the black pill is a disciplinary device that aids in building a digital counter-public that engenders a collective incel identity. Further, the article argues that the black pill produces a form of ‘stochastic terrorism’ in which users interpret its spectrum of beliefs to enact harms from online gender-based hate speech through terrorist violence in the offline world. As a point of departure, the article argues that incel counter-publics transcend the false distinctions between online and offline; both ‘worlds’ contribute to the (re)production of incel anti-feminism and misogyny.

<p>This thesis explores the online ‘manosphere’ subculture of Involuntary Celibates (Incels). Incels have been widely discussed in contemporary media in recent years and have been cited as harmful after several mass-murders and attacks have taken place offline. Previous academic research has largely focused on individual-level explanations for Incel mass-murderers, with few studies seeking to uncover the structural determinants of the rise of Incels. This thesis attempts to fill this gap, exploring the subculture’s negotiation with the changing features of contemporary society. The study utilised internet-based qualitative research methods over a period of three-months to collect data on two Incel forums: r/Braincels and Incels.co. The data was then interpreted through thematic analysis within a constructivist grounded theory approach. The research found that Incels negotiate their anxieties of a rapidly changing globalised world with a sense of victimisation and ‘aggrieved entitlement’ through a worldview that understands society as set up to economically, socially, and sexually favour women. It was also found that through such a sense of entitlement, Incels conceive of a hetero-patriarchal racial caste-system that relies on uncritical readings of selected biological and evolutionary psychological studies. This worldview is known as the ‘Black Pill’ and is employed to ideologically condition Incels against out-groups. Through a shared mythology of victimisation, the Incel ideology of the Black Pill functions to produce a form of ‘stochastic terrorism’ in which individual users interpret the spectrum of beliefs from enacting online gender-based hate-speech to mass violence in the terrestrial world. This thesis presents understandings that could inform future educational programs in critical literacy skills that aim to dismantle the conceptual apparatus that feeds the ideologically charged hatred of groups like Incels.</p>

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Over recent decades Intelligence‐led Policing (ILP) has become a central component of the attempts by New Zealand Police (NZP) to engineer a transformative shift away from ‘reactive’ policing to more ‘proactive’ approaches to crime reduction. ILP appeared to offer an effective response to increasingly complex crime problems, an expanded ‘mission’ and growing public demand, by placing crime intelligence central to decision making. As part of an international study exploring police intelligence, we conducted 20 in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with Police Intelligence staff at all levels of the police hierarchy. Our findings highlight five critical barriers to implementing a successful ILP project in New Zealand. We suggest ILP has not delivered its promised effect of catalysing a major reorientation of the modes of frontline policing or its delivery and argue that this is due to the structural resilience of traditional police cultural reluctance to allow long‐established practice and procedural norms to be fundamentally changed.

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