What Does Childhood Trauma Have to Do With White Supremacy?

Key Points

• Juvenile offenders and extremists have experienced more childhood trauma than the general population.
• Right-wing extremists experienced higher rates of childhood adversity than left-wing extremists.
• Extremists may develop a lack of empathy as a response to maltreatment.

On September 1, 2026, 17-year-old Sarah Santiago, a high school student in North Carolina, was charged with murder in the deaths of three people in a mass shooting at a mosque in San Diego. She and the two gunmen coordinated a plan for her to livestream the event. The two shooters, 17 and 18 years old, one wearing Nazi insignia that Sarah provided, took their own lives. Little is known about Sarah Santiago’s family, her childhood, or those of the gunmen, but researchers have made some headway in understanding the origins of violent extremism.

Young people who engage in any kind of criminal behavior are likely to have experienced many more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) than those who don’t. For example, 96% of offenders in the Florida juvenile justice system experienced at least one ACE in their lifetime and 40% experienced four or more (Windisch, 2022). Those who engage in right-wing extremism look similar in terms of trauma exposure.

In one of the first studies of the incidence of childhood trauma among white supremacists, researchers found that 65% of those studied had been exposed to at least one type of childhood maltreatment, including physical or emotional neglect, or emotional, physical, or sexual abuse. One third of them were exposed to three or more of these. Notably, emotional neglect and lack of support were reported more frequently and painfully than neglect of physical needs (Windisch).

Another study reported that right-wing extremists experienced higher rates of cumulative childhood adversity than left-wing extremists and greater severity of those experiences. Those who engaged in right-wing extremism were more likely to report aggressive conduct behaviors in adolescence, whereas most left-wing extremists had not been socialized toward violence in childhood and did not engage in aggressive forms of misconduct. Instead, left-wing extremists became socially withdrawn and alienated in reaction to the absence of emotional support and attachment difficulties in childhood (Logan et al, 2024).

Right-wing extremism, which rejects the notion that all people have equal value and often assigns human worth based on race or ethnicity, is organized around the dehumanization of “others” and a social Darwinist “survival of the fittest.” This perspective may be more appealing to individuals with a history of maltreatment who have learned to cope with adversity through aggression and conflict (Logan et al, 2024).

Researchers identified three frequent responses among the traumatized extremists they studied: a sense of betrayal and inability to trust others; self-blame as a coping mechanism that restores a sense of control; anger that turns to violent action as a way to protect oneself from humiliation or feelings of unworthiness (Windisch et al, 2022).

Another mechanism that may help explain violent behavior, including extremist behavior, as a response to trauma is the presence of what are called callous-unemotional traits. What this looks like is a lack of empathy and guilt and a tendency to manipulate others (Mozley et al, 2018). Callous-unemotional traits used to be thought of as biologically based, but we are coming to understand them as reactions to the pain of abuse. Children protect themselves by walling off unmanageable distress and detaching emotionally from others. The retreat from connection and identification with others offers protection to a child’s inner self, but when you don’t see your victims as human beings like yourself, it is much easier to harm them.

I interviewed a former white supremacist for my book, Before Their Crimes: What We’re Misunderstanding about Childhood Trauma, Youth Crime, and the Path to Healing. I’ll call him Shane. He served 16 years in prison for a brutal drug-related murder committed when he was 16 years old. Shane had six ACE exposures, including sexual abuse, emotional neglect, and an addicted parent.

Shane never knew his father. His mother’s heroin addiction left him alone constantly, and his own drug use began at age 8, progressing to hard drugs by age 12. He longed for his mother’s attention, thinking the calls from school and police about his drugged-out behavior and criminal activity would evoke her concern and care. She enrolled him in rehab, but when that failed, she gave up.

He had been groomed, recruited, and indoctrinated into a hate group when he was ten years old, prepared to be receptive to these ideas by his extended family’s belief that people who were not White should be rejected or even destroyed.

“My mom was sober on and off. My involvement with hate groups was the one thing that hurt her. My drug addiction and my crimes upset her, but they didn’t hurt her. I wanted to hurt her the way she had hurt me, so I threw everything I had into it.”

For many white supremacists, the onset of extremist ideas does not begin with a single event but is generated by the cumulative impact of multiple adverse experiences. We can see the racism of these groups; what we may not see is how they also serve as receptacles of wounds and disappointments that have little to do with the stated aims of their activities (Smith, 2025).

References

Logan, M. K., Windisch, S., & Simi, P. (2024). Adverse childhood experiences (ACE), adolescent misconduct, and violent extremism: A comparison of former left-wing and right-wing extremists. Terrorism and Political Violence, 36(1), 55-74.

Mozley, M. M., Lin, B., & Kerig, P. K. (2018). Posttraumatic overmodulation, callous–unemotional traits, and offending among justice-involved youth. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 27(7), 744-758.

Smith, W. (2025). Before Their Crimes: What We’re Misunderstanding about Childhood Trauma, Youth Crime, and the Path to Healing. Bloomsbury Publishing: New York.

Windisch, S., Simi, P., Blee, K., & DeMichele, M. (2022). Measuring the extent and nature of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) among former white supremacists. Terrorism and Political Violence, 34(6), 1207-1228.