Grievance: The Common Precursor to Violence

FBI and U.S. Secret Service data reveal that the vast majority (> 79%) of perpetrators in the 160 active shooter incidents in the U.S. from 2000 to 2013, and the 41 targeted school shootings in the U.S. from 2008 to 2017, harbored a real or imagined sense of experienced wrong, injustice, or other form of perceived victimization.⁹ For 2017, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's National Violent Death Reporting System identified the most common circumstance of all violent deaths not precipitated by another crime (such as robbery) as “injury occurred during an argument.”¹⁰

Retaliation in response to grievances is the single most important cause of human aggression and violent behavior^{Reference Anderson, Bushman and Gilligan11} and the primary motive for intimate partner violence,^{Reference Langhinrichsen-Rohling, McCullars and Misra12} youth violence and bullying,^{Reference Copeland-Linder, Johnson, Haynie, Chung, Cheng and Fluck13} street and gang violence,^{Reference Papachristos, Hureau, Braga, Jacobs and Wright14} lone-actor attacks,^{Reference Pathé, Haworth, Goodwin, Holman, Amos, Winterbourn and Day15} police brutality and abuse of force,^{Reference D'Souza, Weitzer, Brunson, Uildriks and van Reenen16} and terrorism.^{Reference Ghatak, Prins and Schmid17} The role of grievance and revenge in precipitating violence appears to hold true among those with serious mental illness who commit violent acts, with studies showing that anger and revenge, not mental illness, are the most common motives and predictors of proximate violence.^{Reference Matejkowski, Cullen, Solomon, Skeem, Schubert, Odgers, Mulvey, Gardner and Lidz18}

The FBI active shooter study determined that grievances involving actions directed against the shooter personally (e.g., romantic, employment, governmental, etc.) were more likely to lead to violence than global considerations, ideology, or hatred.¹⁹ The most common grievances precipitating violent crimes are psychological rather than physical harms, including insults, betrayal, lack of respect, lack of courtesy, and being wrongly accused — especially when carried out by significant others or in public, leading to humiliation.²⁰ A study of U.S. Department of Justice investigations of civil rights and abuse of force violations within four major U.S. city police departments found “a deeply embedded practice” in all four departments of “retaliatory actions against citizens. Detainment, arrest, and physical force were used in response to behavior that officers deemed annoying or distasteful but posed no threat, to those who used language that officers considered disrespectful or critical; to individuals who videotaped interactions with officers; and to protesters.”²¹

Revenge: The Common Motivation for Violence

A grievance itself is not a motivation to commit acts of violence, but a growing body of neuroscience research reveals that grievances activate the reward circuitry of the brain implicated in substance addiction, triggering a desire to retaliate against or punish transgressors or their proxies in anticipation of experiencing pleasure from gaining revenge or relief from the distress caused by the grievance.

Chester and DeWall performed a functional MRI (fMRI) brain imaging study of participants competing against a fictional opponent to see who could press a button faster, with the loser receiving noise blasts at volume levels chosen by the opponent. Study participants were able to see if their fictional opponent had set aggressively high-volume levels (high provocation) or low volume levels (low provocation). In subsequent trials, participants had the chance to retaliate against the fictional opponent with high noise blasts of their own. On fMRI, significant activation of the area of the brain most associated with hedonic reward and pleasure in addiction was observed in the brains of those who retaliated. The authors concluded: “These findings have clear implications for treatments and interventions that target reducing aggression…. [I]f aggression is motivated by reward then such treatments should adopt practices from addiction treatment models that often seek to mitigate the role of cravings and anticipated reward.”²²

Other brain imaging studies have produced similar results: significant activation of the NA among retaliatory participants in economic exchange games;²³ NA activation among study participants passively viewing infliction of pain upon unfair players of economic games,²⁴ significant activation of the caudate nucleus of the dorsal striatum (DS) — strongly associated with reward processing and motivation in substance addiction — among participants punishing trust violators in economic games.²⁵ Preliminary evidence from neurogenetic and neurochemistry studies also appears to support these brain imaging findings.^{Reference Crockett, Apergis-Schoute, Herrmann, Lieberman, Müller, Robbins, Clark, Chester, DeWall, Derefinko, Estus, Peters and Jiang26}

A Behavioral Addiction Model of Revenge and Violence

“Behavioral addiction” resembles drug and alcohol addiction but does not involve the ingestion of psychoactive substances.^{Reference Grant, Potenza, Weinstein and Gorelick27} The American Society of Addiction Medicine defines addiction as “a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual's life experiences. People with addiction use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences.”²⁸ The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) identifies gambling disorder as an addictive disorder.²⁹ Other behaviors proposed by researchers as behavioral addictions but for which there is less data include internet gaming, internet addiction, and compulsive sex, shopping, exercise, tanning, and eating disorders.^{Reference Petry, Zajac and Ginley30}

A hallmark of behavioral addiction is “the failure to resist an impulse, drive, or temptation to perform an action that is harmful to the person or others.”³¹ Like substance addiction, behavioral addictions involve cravings, tension, arousal, and compulsivity.^{Reference Robbins and Clark32} Activation of the areas of the brain associated with anticipated reward, craving, motivation, and compulsive behavior in drug addiction (the NA and DS) has been observed in behavioral addictions.^{Reference Yau and Potenza33} Alterations in dopamine transmission within brain reward circuitry have been detected in both forms of addiction.³⁴

Many features of behavioral addiction appear to be present for revenge-seeking. The primary purpose of revenge and the violence through which it is often achieved is to inflict harm upon others, satisfying the harmful consequences aspect of behavioral addiction. As described above, revenge-seeking exhibits the neurobiological traits of addiction. It also appears to become compulsive and obsessive for some individuals. The FBI's active shooter study observed that grievances triggering retaliatory violence can “saturate a person's thinking.”³⁵ Other researchers have pointed to the potential for individuals to become fixated on grievances and revenge, leading them to “spend much of their waking lives thinking about the object of their concern.”^{Reference Corner, Gill, Schouten and Farnham36} Crockett and colleagues demonstrated that individuals are willing to incur personal costs to experience “pure retaliation” — that is, revenge solely for pleasure of it.^{Reference Crockett, Özdemir and Fehr37} Bushman et al. showed that people become aggressive in response to grievances to improve their mood and make themselves feel better.^{xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bibr39-1073110520979419">.38} Other studies have shown that aggression can become appetitive.^{Reference Golden, Heins, Venniro, Aprioli, Zhang, Epstein and Shaham39}

Notable similarities exist between addiction, compulsive revenge-seeking, and violence. For example, the age of onset during adolescence and young adulthood for substance and behavioral addictions⁴⁰ is similar to the age of onset of violent behavior during adolescence.^{Reference Liu, Lewis and Evans41} Both behaviors also appear to be progressive. Drug use often begins with legal ‘gateway’ drugs and proceeds to more powerful illicit narcotics.^{Reference Kandel and Kandel42} Revenge-seeking appears to follow a similar course, from less dangerous non-violent revenge activities such as verbal insults and threats to more dangerous and unlawful violent behaviors.^{Reference Yoshimura43} Self-control theory, established as a key explanatory factor and predictor of crime,^{Reference Gottfredson and Hirschi44} appears to mesh at least in part with a behavioral addiction model that views compulsive hedonic revenge as a root cause of violence. Evidence presented in this article suggests, however, that the effect of low self-control on violent crime may be conditional upon the presence of a grievance. Further, although self-control training has been shown to reduce aggressivness,^{Reference Denson, DeWall and Finkel45} self-control alone often is not sufficient to counter powerful addictive cravings.

In summary, although definitive evidence does not yet exist for a behavioral addiction model of revenge-seeking and violence, significant neurobiological and behavioral similarities between revenge-seeking, substance addiction, and other addictive behaviors warrant further investigation.

Preventing and Treating Gun Abuse

Papachristos and colleagues' research provides evidence that gun violence is not random and that gunshot survivors may “pass on” violence through “norms of retaliation” to others in their social networks, especially among young, minority male co-offenders engaged in risky behaviors in urban settings.^{Reference Papachristos, Wildeman and Roberto46} They argue against sweeping violence prevention policies based on broad categorical distinctions and in favor of “interventions and policies that consider the observable risky behavior of individuals.”⁴⁷

If addiction is an appropriate framework for understanding the mechanisms of grievance, retaliation, and violence, then scientific and public health-oriented strategies used for addressing substance and behavioral addictions should be considered for preventing and treating gun abuse and other forms of violent behavior.⁴⁸ Such strategies may include cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, psychosocial approaches, peer recovery services, and 12-step self-help approaches.⁴⁹ Pharmaceuticals such as naltrexone and nalmefene have shown efficacy in reducing cravings in some behavioral addictions, and might be tested for effectiveness in reducing compulsive revenge cravings that lead to violence.⁵⁰

A recent pilot study demonstrated preliminary efficacy of a promising motive control intervention — the Nonjustice System (NJS) — designed specifically to reduce revenge cravings by combining aspects of cognitive strategies, psychodrama, criminal justice theory, and wisdom traditions.^{Reference Rowe, Kimmel, Pavlo, Antunes, Bellamy, O'Connell, Ocasio, Desai, Bal, Flanagan and Kimmel51} The intervention is a 9-step role-play in which aggrieved individuals explore their desire for revenge and possible alternatives through an imaginary mock trial of their perpetrator. Employed either as an online self-help tool or led by a trained facilitator in one-on-one or group sessions, individuals imaginatively play the roles of complainant, prosecutor, defendant, witness, defense lawyer, judge, jury, witness to administration of punishments, and judge of their own lives. A series of prompts guide individuals through each role and ask how they are feeling as the prosecution and punishment move forward.

In the pilot study, thirty-six adults experiencing repeated and intrusive revenge urges or fantasies arising out of personal grievances were recruited from social service and community mental health agencies in a mid-sized northeastern U.S. city. After measuring participant revenge urges at baseline, each participant was exposed to an artificial personal grievance scenario — the deliberate killing of a beloved (imaginary) pet. Twenty-one participants experienced increased measurable revenge urges because of the grievance scenario and moved on to receive administration of the NJS intervention by a trained facilitator. Results for this group showed significant decreases in revenge urges and increases in benevolence toward the perpetrator both immediately after the NJS intervention and at two-week follow-up, indicating efficacy. Findings from qualitative interviews identified greater awareness of self and other, “thinking things through,” and a sense of empowerment among participants.⁵²

The NJS has been used by outreach workers in the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program in collaboration with Yale New Haven Hospital to help prevent lethal retaliatory violence in the aftermath of neighborhood shootings. The intervention is currently being adapted for use as a bullying victim support and prevention program by a children's mental health clinic for schools. It has also been used in a peer support program for individuals with serious mental illness re-entering the community from Pennsylvania jails, with results for the overall program showing significant decreases in the rate of re-incarceration.^{Reference Bellamy, Kimmel, Costa, Tsai, Nulton, Nulton, Kimmel, Aguilar, Clayton and O'Connell53}

While the NJS targets vengeance cravings among individuals with grievances, it has potential group, self-help, and peer to peer applications that can be integrated within public health strategies, as well as individual ‘treatment’ approaches. Mass media public health awareness campaigns that target vengeance cravings might also be employed with the aims of promoting positive change in individual health behaviors^{Reference Noar, Chabot, Zimmerman and Bernhardt54} and reducing negative behaviors.^{Reference Wakefield, Loken and Hornik55}

Social and Cultural Factors in Gun Abuse

“Revenge cravings” may run along a continuum from: intense but short-lasting, or ongoing but fairly well contained and not meeting the requirements of an addiction diagnosis; to powerful, compulsive, heedless of negative consequences, and possibly meeting addiction diagnostic criteria. Correspondingly, help for individuals whose lives are negatively affected by revenge cravings may run along a similar continuum or range of support. Such supports offered to persons with revenge cravings need not suggest that harms inflicted by others (physical, emotional, financial) or society (structural poverty, racism, social exclusion) are invalid or should not be addressed. Supports at one end of the continuum and treatment at the other should be designed to empower people to heal from and work toward the mitigation and elimination of victimization and oppression, with special attention to the potential stigmatization and negative labeling of persons seeking help for their vengeance cravings, as has been the case, for example, with the negative labeling of persons with mental illnesses.^{Reference Corrigan56}

A prevention and treatment approach may help to reduce gun abuse, but we must also attend to social and economic inequities that give rise to grievances and revenge cravings. Communities, typically poor and often overrepresented by people of color, can become trapped in cycles of violence due to lack of economic opportunity, inadequate public education, unequal treatment by law enforcement, and infrastructural neglect. Scientific and public health prevention and treatment strategies for violence are not a substitute for improving social and economic conditions that contribute to violence. At the same time, the advent of such strategies could offer new resources and forms of support, self-empowerment, and self-determination to families and communities across the U.S. struggling to break cycles of violence.

Another consideration is to ensure that public health-oriented prevention and treatment approaches for reducing gun abuse and gun violence are not misused to stigmatize, pathologize, discriminate against, or control marginalized communities. Policymakers, law enforcement and criminal justice officials, the medical community, and other stakeholders must resist attempts to view particular groups or communities as “addicted to violent behavior.” Viewing gun abuse and revenge cravings within the framework of compulsive behavior or addiction and, potentially, “as a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual's life experiences”⁵⁷ should be a tool for helping individuals, communities, and societies live in safety and peace.