The True Crime Community(TCC) is Not The Same as 764
Mixing up the two could cause more harm to the kids in these groups, let's talk about it.
All information provided in this is written by Allizandra Herberhold and if redistributed or reused by any party they must cite and attribute any information pulled from the document. This is property of Seeking Safer Pathways, LLC.
NVE is essentially the umbrella term for a lot of different groups but the main focus is on 764-type groups. I know it is important for the public to have a concrete term to help them conceptualize things. However, I have seen more than enough articles as of late that is stating definitively that TCC and 764 are the same thing. They are not.
My opinions are based on my experience as a practitioner, who works directly with kids who are the minority that want to or attempt to carry out violence in both 764 and TCC, researcher of TCC undercover for 3 years and now directly communicate with the community. I can say the motivations, experiences, and membership of each group are completely different. WHAT IS the same is that many of the kids who get sucked into these groups have a history of suicidal ideation, self harm, eating disorders and challenging home lives.
For clarification, also, when I refer to TCC I am specifically referring to SCHOOL attackers who are grievance, not ideologically, motivated. I am not focused on ideologically motivated attackers like Tarrant or Roof. Those are an entire different sub-category of TCC that I will touch on another day.
764 and Other Splinter Groups
The motivation of an average member:
Initially most are being introduced online by a friend or someone they meet online
Pretty quickly it goes one of two ways:
Grooming and love bombing or
It begins almost immediately with abuse, control or manipulation
Fear if they leave their life will be ruined, they could be swatted or doxxed or have their photos leaked. They do not feel there is any option but to stay. Many of them are threatened that if they tell an adult, their family will be killed.
Many do not feel they have the privilege of contacting law enforcement regarding their abuse and suffer in silence
The motivation of an aggressor in 764
They want to make content that is screenshot worthy so they can distribute and display it to other members.
Many of their end goals are to convince someone to kill themselves on livestream, that is the ultimate currency for approval and ultimate display of control.
Most of these aggressors do not physically harm anyone themselves but groom and extort others into carrying out violence at their direction (Kinda like Manson).
Once they have the digital “proof” of their ability to direct another person to do harm, they share it around to other people.
They make edits of it, promote themselves online and GET TO ENJOY THE NOTORIETY because they are alive.
Largely they prefer to remain anonymous, even with people they become close to in the community because of how high risk their behavior online is or fear of being doxxed/swatted.
Themes
Some members initially choose to be members, some are extorted immediately once in contact with a member and forced to join but many do not feel they have the option to leave.
Extorting violent content from mostly unwilling victims (some become so used to the abuse, they feel it is their only way to prove their worth or get affection from their abuser so they offer to do the behaviors) including CSAM, gore videos, cut-signs, blood walls, animal abuse/torture/death, live-streaming humiliation rituals such as having the victim cut off their hair, degrading them verbally, threatening to release their nudes, swatting them repeatedly, doxxing them and much more.
This type of humiliation is often displayed on livestream with many people watching it in real time, commenting or talking through voice chat humiliating and coercing them further - all while it is being screen recorded.
Grooming and desensitizing victims by repeated exposure to extreme gore content, violent imagery and CSAM
Satantic imagery, murder-for-hire, ritualistic behaviors (blood rituals mostly), accelerationism, white supremacy ideology, racism, misogyny, homophobia, basically nothing is off the table.
Members looking to groom new victims will frequently go on servers or profiles dedicated to self-harm or eating disorders to find vulnerable people.
Reported Experience from Ex-Members about Their Time in 764-Type Groups
Victims have reported experiencing PTSD symptoms, nightmares, and report their experience being traumatic
Remembering the time in their life where they were nearly coerced into killing themselves on live-stream, self harming out of fear, or doing something they didn’t want to do like harming their pet
Shame for engaging in conversations, groups or times where they encouraged another person to hurt themselves (as a way they were groomed into or felt was a survival tactic for themselves during the abuse)
Anger relating to the abuse they were directed to inflict on themselves and the lasting impact the scars have on their bodies
Perpetrators (I have worked with who were minors - not the adults arrested for CSAM) have expressed remorse for their actions and shame regarding their behavior
Remembering seeing violent images and CSAM that desensitized them but do not feel the images will ever really go away from their memory
Self-hatred, shame and questioning how they could have done the things they did and fearful anyone will find out about it
One of the most important things I hope will you take away from this article is that the vast majority of kids in 764 and off-shoot groups are victims. We need to be viewing this a lot more through the lens of domestic violence and cycles of abuse. One of the most complicated aspects for people to grasp onto when hearing about 764 and off-shoots is that even a lot of the aggressors who go on to do terrible things, have been victimized in some way by the group (doxxing, swatting, extorted, sexstorted).
True Crime Community (TCC)
The motivation of an average member:
Friendship, community, curiosity, understanding, to feel seen or feels like they relate to the life of the perpetrator prior to their attack
Interest in a specific case they have come across and a desire to learn more about it initially and then come across info posts or other threads within the community. They identify with a specific perpetrators case and become more inclined to continue engaging with the community. They start to make friends on platforms, then there is buy-in, community, and a reason to stay. They suddenly do not feel so alone or misunderstood.
A lot of themes are focused on their own suicide or the suicide of a perpetrator more than the murder of innocent people. Many openly express disapproval of the attack and wished it didn’t happen or that they could have somehow prevented it.
Once they feel comfortable, they will frequently drop anonymity with people they feel are their peers and willingly share information (not because they were doxxed by another member).
They have reported other members who shared they have a plan to law enforcement with the intention of preventing another targeted violence attack
Motivation of a member who goes on to (successfully or unsuccessfully) shoot or stab people at school:
These are often from the most extreme subsets of the True Crime Community (TCC),
Largely, grievance motivated. They feel they are out of options and the only solution for their problem is violence.
For some that do carry out an attack, when looking for notoriety they will attempt to livestream themselves or leave behind a digital footprint.
The notoriety a lot of times, I believe, comes from just a desire to be seen because prior to the attack they feel invisible, like nothing and think this is the only way to be remembered.
The 2019 report from the US Secret Service stated that more than 75 percent of school shooters communicated their intentions ahead of their shooting - lots of opportunities to have intervened.
Yes, some are inspired by previous attacks (usually Columbine) and that is the blueprint for them to take action.
Most of them go on to kill themselves in the end
So keep that in mind that even though they get the notoriety - they never get to relish in it or enjoy it because they are dead or in prison.
Themes
Members choose membership. They are not coerced, forced, or threatened with consequences by peers if they decide to leave the TCC.
There are themes of self harm but not at the behest or direction of another person.
It is a separate issue they used to cope that was not learned or encouraged by the TCC.
Depending on the platform, gore content is viewed and shared. There is not CSAM, not sexstortion, not swatting. Members have reported anti-TCC activists doxxing members and reporting to authorities.
Depending on the group and platform, there are certainly TCC members who express beliefs of white supremacy, racism, sexism, misogyny, misandry, etc. but the overwhelming majority might use slurs in the same edgy-context a lot of teenagers use them.
Many members identify themselves as neurodivergent, bisexual or gay, trans, or having Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
Overwhelming amount of members have suicidal ideation at some point, inpatient psych holds, diagnosed with depression or anxiety, eating disorders, questioning their identity or sexuality, self harm, report history of abuse or trauma.
I’ve observed some members self-reporting they are in SHEDTWT or other related groups.
Reported Experience from Ex-Members about Their Time in TCC
Some report that while they made friends and had many positive experiences, the content of school shootings and talking about suicide often made them feel “worse” which led them to leave the community.
Some report they have grown out of it and find it “cringe now” and have expressed shame for having been a member.
Some who have left report missing it but say it is “not the same anymore” when they have tried to return to different platforms.
Some were “fedded” (law enforcement intervention) which led to consequences that made them no longer allowed to engage within the community
Most of the ones in this category didn’t have a plan but were interested in TCC and reported them to law enforcement
Some DID have a plan and another member of the TCC reported them or a bystander that led to their plan being thwarted, thankfully
Working with the Kids From These Groups
The part that makes 764 different from ANY other group I have worked with (ISIS, Neo-nazi, Groyper, TCC, Incels, ANTIFA, Orthodox Nationalists) is that the aggressors have always done something they cannot take back. The other groups I mentioned before, until they pull the trigger or detonate the bomb, they haven’t victimized anyone. They have not irreparably harmed another person for life.
However, the 764-type groups have done things they will never be able to fully take back. They have hurt another person, usually a lot of them. They have to live with what they did, who they hurt and take accountability for their actions. While their actions may be much smaller scale technically (self-harm vs mass casualty event) - it is repeated, perpetuating a cycle of abuse and a constant choice they continue to make. They have to accept the multiple choices they made over and over for the sake of approval, notoriety and power.
Our Role As Adults
It is our responsibility as adults to know the differences between the dangers our children are facing. You HAVE to know the difference between something like 764 vs TCC vs Incel and so on. They are not the same. They do not have the same function, community-style, or motivation behind their violence nor do they carry violence out the same or toward the same targets.
I know it is easy to want to lump everything together because you do not want to know the nuances. I can understand that but mislabeling will lead to panic, fear mongering and inevitably MORE harm toward these kids. We MUST do better. People MUST stop writing things for clicks and share information with each other.
Listen, my god, I do not like the violent action of 764-type groups or TCC members who carried out an attack. It is devastating, heart breaking and I hate seeing children feel they have to resort to violence. I mourn for the victims and the impact it has on their families. I hate it, I hate seeing the pain and even worse, all the signs adults chose to ignore along the way. We have to do better, we have to educate ourselves, approach these kids with understanding instead of fear, and believe that they have the capacity for recovery.
Message of Hope
Guess what? I have seen kids get better. I have seen radicalized kids, kids wanting to carry out violence and extremely suicidal kids GET BETTER. There is HOPE. Most of their chance for hope was someone acknowledged something was wrong and an adult stepped in.
These kids need a role model, an adult they can trust and someone who is willing to understand them. No matter the ideology or group affiliation, they all want community, friendship, to feel seen and cared for. Step up and be that adult in their life.
Consult with your Behavioral Threat Assessment Team if you believe someone is at risk or needs intervention. Additionally, feel free to reach out to me anytime if you have a case you need help with or questioning what might be happening.
what if we just think dylan klebold is cute… god is love, no?