<b>Worldwide Escalation of Pickup Artist (PUA) Culture and Its Aggravation of Violent Crime Risks</b>

This study scrutinized a comprehensive examination of the Pickup Artist (PUA) culture and its spatiotemporal developmental trends. Since the 1970s, PUA culture has undergone significant evolution, increasingly associating with extremist ideologies and normalized violence, thereby undermining contemporary gender equality and societal harmony. Addressing the current academic gap due to the absence of official, standardized large-scale data, this study delineated the unclear global prevalence and spatiotemporal distribution trends of the PUA phenomenon, impeding the formulation of region-specific countermeasures. Drew on a dataset of 33 million entries from the world's largest PUA forum (https://www.pick-up-artist-forum.com/), this research employed open-source natural language processing tools such as Gensim and Perspective, alongside manual review methods, for systematic error correction and categorization of PUA data. Building on this, the study utilized multidimensional mathematical convex hull methods for extrapolating the effectiveness and representativeness of geospatial data points related to PUA activities, offering an in-depth analysis of the global spatiotemporal distribution characteristics, regional heterogeneity, and potential societal risks of PUA culture. To mitigate uncertainties inherent in methodologies, data, and mathematical assumptions, this study integrated multiple machine learning models (Xgboost, Adaboost, etc.) with game-theory-based Shap for attribution analysis and contribution parsing of PUA indices and types across different countries and regions, revealing the impact of income levels, education, religious control, and political trust on PUA culture. Integrating theoretical frameworks from psychology, sociology, and emergency management, this research illuminated the evolutionary trends of different types of PUAs over the past decades. Moreover, using methods like Moran I, this study examined the spatial correlation between PUA indices and violent crime incidents. Furthermore, under the premised of continuity, smoothness, and serial dependence required by spatial breakpoint regression, this study employed quasi-experimental spatial breakpoint regression and controlled variable methods based on experimentation for causal inference analysis between PUA indices and violent crime incidents. The empirical findings of this study provide a theoretical and empirical foundation for managers and readers to collaboratively develop effective intervention strategies and social policies, advocating the necessity of educational, legal, and societal interventions to mitigate the risks of regional heterogeneity in gender discrimination and protect potential victims from manipulation and exploitation.