Researching Incels: A Critical Feminist Intervention

In February 2024, the UK Government’s Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE) published a commissioned report entitled Predicting Harm Among Incels (Involuntary Celibates) (Whitaker et al., 2024). This work, touted as the largest of its kind and offered to UK government select committees, contains several substantial ontological, methodological, and conceptual limitations. However, this book is not alone in conducting problematic research. The aim of this book length rebuttal is to critically discuss in detail the extent of these limitations, questioning the quality of the report and related literature. Cumulatively. this is important because many of the findings from this kind of research on incels are disseminated to stakeholders and policymakers. As such, this book provides not just an academic criticism of a significant portion of research into incels from multiple disciplinary perspectives (linguistics, sociology, criminology, etc), but also provides clear and actionable points for policymakers. Drawing on long histories of research, we provide clear evidence for the problematic nature of multiple approaches in disciplines such as evolutionary psychology. This work that has gone into this book has since informed multiple pieces of evidence to the UK Women's and Equalities Select Committee, but also has international implications for any policymakers interested in researching incels.