Vigilantism

"Vigilante" redirects here. For other uses, seeVigilante (disambiguation).

Not to be confused withlynching.

The "Bald Knobbers",an 1880s vigilante group fromMissouri– as portrayed in the 1919 filmThe Shepherd of the Hills

Vigilantism(/vɪdʒɪˈlæntɪzəm/) is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes withoutlegal authority.

Avigilanteis a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakespublic safetyandretributive justicewithout commission.

Definition

The term is borrowed from Italianvigilante,which means 'sentinel' or 'watcher', from Latinvigilāns.According to political scientist Regina Bateson, vigilantism is "the extralegal prevention, investigation, or punishment of offenses."The definition has three components:

1. Extralegal: Vigilantism is done outside of the law (not necessarily in violation of the law)
2. Prevention, investigation, or punishment: Vigilantism requires specific actions, not just attitudes or beliefs
3. Offense: Vigilantism is a response to a perceived crime or violation of an authoritative norm

Other scholars have defined "collective vigilantism" as "group violence to punish perceived offenses to a community."

Les Johnston argues that vigilantism has six necessary components:

• it is planned or premeditated
• it is carried out by private volunteers
• it is a social movement
• it involves or threatens the use of force
• it occurs when established societal norms are perceived to be threatened
• its primary goal is to enforce safety and security, especially to its participants, by combating crime

History

Vigilantism and the vigilante ethos existed long before the wordvigilantewas introduced into the English language. There are conceptual parallels between the medievalaristocraticcustom ofprivate warorvendettaand the modern vigilante philosophy.

Elements of the concept of vigilantism can be found in the biblical account inGenesis34 of the abduction and rape (or, by some interpretations, seduction) ofDinah,the daughter ofJacob,in theCanaanitecity ofShechemby the eponymous son of the ruler, and the violent reaction of her brothersSimeonandLevi,who slew all of the males of the city in revenge, rescued their sister and plundered Shechem. When Jacob protested that their actions might bring trouble upon him and his family, the brothers replied "Should he [i.e., Shechem] treat our sister as a harlot?"

Similarly, in 2 Samuel,Absalomkills his brotherAmnonafterKing David,their father, fails to punish Amnon for rapingTamar,their sister.

In theWesternliterary and cultural tradition, characteristics of vigilantism have often been vested in folkloric heroes andoutlaws(e.g.,Robin Hood).

During medieval times, punishment of felons was sometimes exercised by suchsecret societiesas the courts of theVehm(cf.the medieval SardinianGamurralater becomeBarracelli,the SicilianVendicatoriand theBeati Paoli), a type of early vigilante organization, which became extremely powerful in Westphalian Germany during the 15th century.

Vigilantism in Mexico

In some regions of Mexico, mainly in the state ofMichoacan,people affected by criminal groups likeLos ZetasandLa Familia Michoacana,created vigilante groups calledGrupos de autodefensa comunitariain 2013. Their most notorious leader wasHipólito Mora,assassinated in 2023.

Other notable acts of vigilantism

• In the early 20th century, theWhite Finnsfounded theSuojeluskunta(Protection Corps) as a paramilitary vigilante organization inFinland.It formed the nucleus of the White Army in theFinnish Civil War.
• A number of vigilante organizations were founded in the US around the time of World War I including theAmerican Protective League,National Security League,Knights of Liberty,andBoy Spies of America,with the goal of targeting those suspected to be pro-German or insufficiently loyal.Violent events by such groups included theTulsa Outrage,thelynching of Olli Kinkkonen,and a number of othertarring and featheringevents such as those in Wisconsin.
• In the 1920s, theBig Sword SocietyofChinaprotected life and property in a state ofanarchy.
• AfterWorld War II,many allegedNazi collaboratorswere beaten up or killed for their activities by vigilantes.
• In 1954, the ThaiBorder Patrol Policeformed theVolunteer Defense Corps(also called the Village Scouts;Thai:ลูกเสือชาวบ้าน) to provide law and order and emergency or natural disaster response. In 1974 it was expanded by theInternal Security Operations Command(ISOC) to urban areas to fight left-wing political activism. The Village Scouts were subsequently involved in theThammasat University massacreof 1976. Their 21st centuryInternet censorshipvigilance groups are calledลูกเสือบนเครือข่ายอินเทอร์เน็ตor 'Cyber Scouts'.
• Recognized since the 1980s,Sombra Negraor "Black Shadow" ofEl Salvadoris a group of mostly retired police officers and military personnel whose sole duty is to cleanse the country of impure social elements by killing criminals and gang members. Along with several other organizations, Sombra Negra are a remnant of thedeath squadsfrom the civil war of the 1970s and 1980s.
• On the 5th of May, 1981Marianne Bachmeierpulled out a handgun from the right side of her trench coat and shot her seven year old daughter's sexual abuser and murderer dead during his trial in the courtroom of Lübeck District Court.
• On the 28th of November, 1994,Jeffrey Dahmer,a famous Milwaukeeserial killerandcannibalwas beaten to death byChristopher Scarver,a fellow inmate at theColumbia Correctional InstitutioninPortage, Wisconsin.
• On March 16, 1984,Gary Plauchéshot and killed Jeff Doucet, who was on trial for the kidnapping and rape of Plauché's son. The case received wide publicity because some people questioned whether Plauché should have been charged with murder.
• In 1985,Anti-Fascist Actiongroups were founded throughout GreatBritain,whose goal was to combatfascism.
• During the 1990s, the groupCity without Drugspublicly beat and murdered drug dealers and forced addicts to quit doing drugs in the city ofYekaterinburg,Russia.
• Formed in 1996, thePeople Against Gangsterism and DrugsofCape Town, South Africafights drugs and gangs in their region. They have been linked to terrorism since they bombed some American targets in Cape Town.
• Formed in 1998, theBakassi BoysofNigeriawere viewed as instrumental in decreasing the region's high crime.
• Los Pepeswas a group formed inColombiaduring the 1990s that committed acts of vigilantism against drug lordPablo Escobarand his associates within theMedellín Cartel.
• After theSeptember 11 attacksin 2001,Jonathan Idema,a self-proclaimed vigilante, enteredAfghanistanand captured many people he claimed to beterrorists.Idema claimed he was collaborating with, and supported by, theUnited States Government.He sold news-media outlets tapes that he claimed showed anAl Qaedatraining camp in action. His operations ended abruptly when he was arrested with his partners in 2004 and sentenced to 10 years in a notorious Afghan prison, before being pardoned in 2007.
• Formed in 2002, theRevolutionary Frontis a Swedish anti-fascist organization. Members have been known to orchestrate attacks against known/suspected fascist individuals. The attacks usually involve damaging property, or even attacking the person themselves.
• On August 13, 2004,Akku Yadavwas lynched by a mob of around 200 women from Kasturba Nagar, India. It took them 15 minutes to hack to death the man they say raped them with impunity for more than a decade. Chilli powder was thrown in his face and stones hurled. As he flailed and fought, one of his alleged victims hacked off his penis with a vegetable knife. A further 70 stab wounds were left on his body.
• Salwa Judum,the anti-Naxalitegroup formed in 2005 in India are suspected to be helping the security forces in their fight against Naxals.
• In Hampshire, England, during 2006, a vigilante slashed the tires of more than twenty cars, leaving a note made from cut-out newsprint stating "Warning: you have been seen while using your mobile phone".Driving whilst using a mobile is acriminal offense in the UK,but critics feel the law is little observed or enforced.
• TheGulabi Gang,formed in 2006 inUttar Pradesh,is a female vigilante group dedicated to protecting women of all castes from domestic abuse, sexual violence, and oppression.
• Irish National Liberation Army(INLA), anIrish republicansocialistparamilitary group, maintains a presence in parts of Northern Ireland and has carried out punishment beatings on local alleged petty criminals.In 2006, the INLA claimed to have put at least two drugs gangs out of business in Northern Ireland. After their raid on a criminal organization based in the north-west, they released a statement saying that "the Irish National Liberation Army will not allow the working-class people of this city to be used as cannon fodder by these criminals whose only concern is profit by whatever means available to them."On 15 February 2009, the INLA claimed responsibility for the shooting death of Derry drug-dealer Jim McConnell.On 19 August 2009, the INLA shot and wounded a man in Derry. The INLA claimed that the man was involved in drug dealing although the injured man and his family denied the allegation.In a newspaper article on 28 August, however, the victim retracted his previous statement and admitted that he had been involved in small scale drug-dealing but has since ceased these activities.
• Republican Action Against Drugs orRAADare anIrish Republicanvigilante organization active predominantly in and aroundDerry.Although often attributed as being a front for "Dissident Republican"groups by the media, the organization claim to have no allegiance to any particular Republican party or paramilitary. Formed in late 2008, RAAD originally offered an" amnesty "to all drug dealers, asking them to make themselves known to the group before giving an assurance that they had stopped dealing.In an interview with theDerry Journalin August 2009, the group's leadership explained: "We would monitor the actions of those who have come forward and, given an adequate period of time, interest in those drug dealers would cease and they could start to lead normal lives".Since then, RAAD have claimed responsibility for no less than 17 shootings as well as countless pipe bomb attacks (seeRepublican Action Against Drugs#Timeline).
• Other Irish republicanparamilitaryorganizations have served and continue to serve as vigilantes.Óglaigh na hÉireannfor example in 2011 claimed responsibility for an arson attack on a taxi depot on Oldpark Road, Belfast, which led to the owners fleeing the country. It claimed that the owners were using the depot as a cover for drug dealing.In 2010The Real Irish Republican Armyshot a man in the legs in Derry. The man was a convicted sex offender.The Continuity Irish Republican Armyin 2011 were blamed for the punishment beating of a heroin dealer in Clondalkin, Dublin. The man had previously been ordered to leave the country.
• On April 15, 2011, a group of women inCheránarmed with rocks and fireworks attacked a bus carryingillegal loggersarmed with machine guns inMichoacánassociated with theMexican drug cartelLa Familia Michoacana.They assumed control over the town, expelled the police force and blocked roads leading to oak timber on a nearby mountain. Vigilante activity spread to the nearby community ofOpopeo.They establishedCommunity self-defence groups.The government of Mexico has recognized Cherán as a self-governing indigenous community, but criminals continue to murder residents in the forest.
• On June 13, 2014, Darius, a 16-year-old Romani residing in France and who has been several times interrogated by the police on the account of suspected burglaries and larcenies, was kidnapped, beaten up, and then left in a supermarket trolley by an unknown party after rumors circulated of him being implicated in a housebreaking, which happened several hours before in the city of Pierrefite-sur-Seine.
• Since theMay 9, 2016 Philippine electionsand the start ofRodrigo Duterte's term as the President of the Philippines, numerous suspects (particularly drug users and pushers) were killed by various unknown hitmen labelled as asummary executionduring hiswar on drugs.Duterte has been accused of being linked to theDavao Death Squad,a vigilante group active since the mid-1990s inDavao City,where Duterte had previously served as mayor.

See also

• Bounty hunter
• Charivari
• Citizen detective
• Death squad
• Extrajudicial punishment
• Frankpledge,an American form of frontier-vigilantism which emerged as a "mutation" of the Saxon tradition offrankpledge
• Frontier justice
• Feud,a now-illegal form of non-governmental interpersonal violence which is currently practiced by feudal groups,organized criminalsandgangs
• Internet vigilantism
• List of feuds in the United States
• Law without the state
• Lynching
• Lynching in the United States
• Malfeasance
• Mobbing,the coming together of people for the purpose ofbullyingan individual
• Neighborhood watch
• Paramilitary punishment attacks in Northern Ireland
• Posse comitatus,an indirect descendant of the Northern Germanichirdorfyrdsystem, the "citizen enforcer" band is either capable of acting lawfully as an exceptional agent of justice; or it is in danger of deteriorating into lawlessness which is motivated bypopulistmalice
• Presumption of guilt
• Public humiliation
• Real-life superhero,groups of vigilantes who wear comic book style costumes
• Scam baiting,a form of vigilantism againstscams
• Tarring and feathering
• Vigilante film,films based on revenge theme
• Vigilantism in the United States of America
• Violent non-state actor
• Whistleblower
• Whitecapping
• Vigilante violence in Kerala

Further reading

• Bateson, Regina. "The politics of vigilantism."Comparative Political Studies54.6 (2021): 923-955.online

• Bjørgo, Tore, and Miroslav Mareš, eds.Vigilantism against Migrants and Minorities(Routledge, 2019), 19 essays by experts on Europe and North America.

• Comfort Ero,"Vigilantes, Civil Defense Forces and Militia Groups: The other side of the privatization of security in Africa,"Conflict Trends(June 2000): 25–29.

• Culberson, William C.Vigilantism: Political history of private power in America(Greenwood, 1990).
• Faris, Stephen. "Nigeria's Vigilante Justice,"Mother Jones(April 25, 2002)online
• Huggins, Martha K. editor,Vigilantism and the State in Modern Latin America: Essays on Extralegal Violence,Praeger/Greenwood, 1991.

• Johnston, Les. "What is vigilantism?."British Journal of Criminology36.2 (1996): 220-236.https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a014083

• Kantor, Ana, and Mariam Persson. "Understanding vigilantism." inInformal security providers and Security Sector Reform in Liberia(Stockholm: Folke Bernadotte Akademin, 2010).online
• Kowalewski, David. "Vigilantism." inInternational handbook of violence research(Springer Netherlands, 2003). 339-349.

• Moncada, Eduardo. "Varieties of vigilantism: Conceptual discord, meaning and strategies."Global Crime18.4 (2017): 403-423.online
• Pratten, David. "The politics of protection: perspectives on vigilantism in Nigeria."Africa78.1 (2008): 1-15.online
• Rosenbaum, H. Jon, and Peter C. Sederberg, eds.Vigilante politics(U of Pennsylvania Press, 1976), essays by experts on USA, Africa and Ireland.online
• Rosenbaum, H. Jon, and Peter C. Sederberg. "Vigilantism: An analysis of establishment violence."Comparative Politics6.4 (1974): 541-570.online

External links

• Tom O'Connor,"Vigilantism, Vigilante Justice, and Victim Self-help"

• EyeWitness to History,"Vigilante Justice, 1851".