The Myth Of The Lone Wolf: Criminology, Masculinity, And The Performance Of Violence
- IJLLR Journal
- Jun 29
- 1 min read
Dr. Tripti Chandrakar, Govt. J Yoganandam Chhattisgarh College Raipur (C.G)
Mr. Ashish Jadhav, MATS University Raipur
ABSTRACT
This paper critically interrogates the myth of the "lone wolf," a sociocultural construction that conceals the deeply ingrained gendered and racialized nature of mass violence by attributing the same to psychological aberrations of individuals rather than to systemic crises. Employing an interdisciplinary approach that draws on the inputs of criminology, gender studies, and media critique, this paper contends that the lone male perpetrator is not an exception but an articulation of hegemonic masculinity that is presently in crisis. Where the perpetrator is not a coloured person, violent behavior is depoliticized and largely normalized by discourses surrounding mental illness, social isolation or unrealized potential. But where the perpetrator is racialized, violent behaviors are explained in the paradigms of collective ideologies as well as cultural deviance. In actuality, such violence originates in digital subcultures, grievance networks, and a performative logic that reifies acts of terror as a form of understood entitlement. The figure of the "lone wolf" does not emerge within an isolated context but is manufactured by a society that celebrates domination, erases vulnerability, and mythologizes male agency. This paper dispenses with euphemism and calls for a reconceptualization of violence as systemic, patterned, and constructed narratively. To understand these events is to know more than to name them; it is to engage with the cultural contexts that make them meaningful.
Keywords: Lone Wolf Terrorism, Hegemonic Masculinity, Media Narratives, Cultural Violence, Online Radicalization.
