ADL Report Examines Nexus of Extremism, Insurrection, and Murder

The Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL’s) latest report, Murder & Extremism in the United States in 2021, serves to demonstrate the propensity for domestic extremists to engage in violence. It states that last year domestic extremists killed at least 29 people in the United States, in 19 separate incidents.

The 2021 figures represent a modest increase compared to 2020, which witnessed 23 extremist-related murders, but is much lower than years prior with ranges from 45 to 78 murders. According to the report, “2021 murder totals were low primarily because no high-casualty extremist-related shooting spree occurred this past year.” Moreover, these murders committed by extremists are typically in service of their ideology, in the service of a group they may belong to, or while engaging in traditional, non-ideological criminal activities. Most of the 2021 murders were committed by individuals with longstanding association with an extremist movement. Finally, the report states “Most of the murders (26 of 29) were committed by right-wing extremists …however, two killings were committed by Black nationalists and one by an Islamist extremist—the latter being the first such killing since 2018.” Read the full report here.