Death Threats and Violence

Threats of violence—and especially of homicide—are a too-familiar part of modern life, paralleling stressful conditions at home, on the job, on campus, and in relationships. Death Threats and Violence analyzes the meaning and impact of homicidal threats, the means by which they are communicated, and their development from infrequent private occurrence to ongoing social problem. Using data from the Stalking and Violence Project and recent events including the Virginia Tech massacre, Stephen Morewitz explores the lives of the men (and to a lesser degree, women) who make threats against their partners, strangers, social groups, and institutions. By balancing individual variables against the larger context of social norms and controls, this book offers a well-rounded assessment of death threats and their role in domestic and public violence.

Among the topics included:

• Personal and societal risk factors of threat makers and their victims...

Firstly, it has been found that the majority of the time women make up half of internet hate mobs (gender equity at last) and can be the most vitriolic in their vile vituperations.

As for why people think death threats or threats of violence are acceptable then they probably are just ignorant of the law or don’t care.

I am not sure what the ask classes as a death threats but things like ‘I wish/think/hope/pray that you die’, you ought to be beaten up’ etc are not threats, just the (sometimes justified) expression of desire to see the recipient hurt. These comprise the majority of the cancer known as the comments section and as they do not state credible intent to commit violence or incitement to violence are protected under freedom of speech. ...