What do studies on political violence in the US show?published at 17:50 BST
By
Lucy Gilder & Shayan Sardarizadeh, BBC Verify
A
little earlier in the Congress hearing, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar cited
a number of studies which she said showed that “the left” were not driving
political violence in the US.
In
the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s shooting, President Trump and members of his
administration have suggested that the majority of political violence in
America comes from left-wing groups and individuals.
But
studies on political violence, which BBC Verify has been reviewing, do not
reach this conclusion.
As
there is no consistent or universal definition of “right” or “left” ideology,
it’s very difficult to measure trends in political violence.
It’s
also hard to judge whether a perpetrator’s stated motivation is the same as
their actual motivation for carrying out attacks.
There
is no government database on political violence in the US.
Instead,
we looked at five independent studies from think tanks (including the Cato
Institute, whose research Klobuchar cited) and peer-reviewed journals to
compare the number of violent events by perpetrators who were assigned left- and
right-wing ideologies by researchers.
These
events include plots, attacks, and murders and span several decades.
All
of these studies suggest that there have been more cases of political violence
in the US committed by people assigned a right-wing ideology than a left-wing
one.
But
for the reasons stated above, caution should be taken when drawing conclusions
from these findings.