Dr Chelsea Slater is a lecturer in Forensic Psychology in the Institute of Human Science. She is also the Course Director of the MSc Forensic and Investigative Psychology. Chelsea is part of the CRUW research group (Cyberpsychology Research at the University of Wolverhampton) and SOC research group (Social and Community Psychology). She also supervises research projects across various levels of study, including PhD and Professional Doctorates.

Chelsea completed her PhD at the University of Birmingham in 2016. Her thesis looked into crime linkage with a sample of serial sexual offences. Previously, she earned a BA in Psychology with Honours and Distinction from the University of Michigan (USA), where she completed a dissertation on gender stereotypes and criminal punishment. Chelsea joined the University of Wolverhampton in 2016.

Incels: Understanding the perceived threat and how people can find themselves involved with a hate group

An Incel is someone who identifies as involuntarily sexually celibate (Katz & Tirone, 2015). Whilst the majority of the online interaction for members of such groups is to bond over perceived injustices, others push for revenge to be taken against women and those that “deprive” them of sexual encounters (Ging, 2017). These threats have proved deadly in the attacks of men such as Elliot Rodgers (Ellis & Sidner, 2014) and Ben Moynihan (Futrelle, 2015), which has attracted the attention of law enforcement and governments (Zimmerman, Ryan, & Duriesmith, 2018). Given that much of their communication and interaction occurs online, it is essential to explore and further understand how individuals find likeminded others, and how they are drawn into Incel groups in the first place.

In order to reduce global Incel threat, we need to understand how they behave. Coupled with that is a need for public awareness of their existence and identification of their behaviour. The public cannot be involved in safeguarding if they are not aware of the group or threat against which they are safeguarding. Therefore, it is important to provide two strands of research, one which explores and helps elucidate public awareness around real Incel threat, and a second which considers how Incels group and become a threat online.