Right-wing extremism and lone-actor violence in Italy: the case of the 2018 Macerata shooting

Abstract

On 3 February 2018, in the town of Macerata, an Italian citizen with far-right sympathies deliberately fired several shots from his car at nine African immigrants, injuring six. The article argues that this shooting can be considered an act of lone-actor terrorism, an anomaly in the Italian context. Based on the social science literature on this subject, the paper analyses the profile of the shooter and the dynamics of the attack. Moreover, adopting a relational perspective to radicalisation, it examines the attacker's interactions: on the one hand, he was in contact with different political organisations that could represent ‘echo chambers’ for the tacit validation or even the justification and amplification of radical beliefs, including on the relation between immigration and security; on the other hand, he was not subject to their discipline and social control. This peripheral social position helps explain this case of lone-actor terrorism, in a national context where far-right mobilisation and violence have historically assumed collective forms.

Between paradise and prison: External secrecy and visibility in terrorist organisations

“…Psychologist Peter Suedfeld (2004) observed that, quite surprisingly, terrorists not infrequently end up revealing intentionally their identity, even at the risk of causing disastrous consequences for themselves (see Schuurman et al., 2018; Dudenhoefer et al., 2021; Rose and Morrison, 2021; cf. Marone, 2023) and for their organisation. This act can be driven by both “positive” motivations, connected to excitement and ego‐enhancement (eagerness to display power and feeling of superiority, desire to express intimate values, etc.)…”