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."[1] The definition has three components:
Extralegal: Vigilantism is done outside of the law (not necessarily in violation of the law)
Prevention, investigation, or punishment: Vigilantism requires specific actions, not just attitudes or beliefs
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."[2]
Les Johnston argues that vigilantism has six necessary components:[3]
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
Vigilantism and the vigilante ethos existed long before the wordvigilante was introduced into the English language. There are conceptual parallels between the medievalaristocratic custom ofprivate war orvendetta and the modern vigilante philosophy.[4]
Elements of the concept of vigilantism can be found in the biblical account inGenesis 34 of the abduction and rape (or, by some interpretations, seduction) ofDinah, the daughter ofJacob, in theCanaanite city ofShechem by the eponymous son of the ruler, and the violent reaction of her brothersSimeon andLevi, 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?"
In theWestern literary and cultural tradition, characteristics of vigilantism have often been vested in folkloric heroes andoutlaws (e.g.,Robin Hood[5]).
During medieval times, punishment of felons was sometimes exercised by suchsecret societies as the courts of theVehm[6] (cf. the medieval SardinianGamurra later becomeBarracelli, the SicilianVendicatori and theBeati Paoli), a type of early vigilante organization, which became extremely powerful in Westphalian Germany during the 15th century.
In the early 20th century, theWhite Finns founded theSuojeluskunta (Protection Corps) as a paramilitary vigilante organization inFinland. It formed the nucleus of the White Army in theFinnish Civil War.
Recognized since the 1980s,Sombra Negra ("Black Shadow") ofEl Salvador is 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 squads from the civil war of the 1970s and 1980s.[11]
On the 5th of May, 1981Marianne Bachmeier pulled 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 March 16, 1984,Gary Plauché shot and killed Jeff Doucet, who was set to be arraigned on charges of aggravated kidnapping of Plauché's son. The case received wide publicity because some people questioned whether Plauché - acting on his belief Doucet had been sexually abusing his son - should have been charged with murder.[12]
In the Philippines in the mid-eighties, theAlsa Masa and theKuratong Baleleng were formed to fight Communist insurgents.
During the 1990s, the groupCity without Drugs publicly beat and murdered drug dealers and forced addicts to quit doing drugs in the city ofYekaterinburg,Russia.
After theSeptember 11 attacks in 2001,Jonathan Idema, a self-proclaimed vigilante, enteredAfghanistan and 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 Qaeda training 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 Front is 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.[13]
On August 13, 2004,Akku Yadav was 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.[14]
Salwa Judum, the anti-Naxalite group 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".[15] Driving whilst using a mobile is acriminal offense in the UK, but critics feel the law is little observed or enforced.[16][17][18]
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.[19]
Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), anIrish republicansocialist paramilitary group, maintains a presence in parts of Northern Ireland and has carried out punishment beatings on local alleged petty criminals.[20] 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."[21][22] On 15 February 2009, the INLA claimed responsibility for the shooting death of Derry drug-dealer Jim McConnell.[23] 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.[24] 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.[25]
Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) are anIrish Republican vigilante 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.[26] In an interview with theDerry Journal in 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".[26] 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 republicanparamilitary organizations have served and continue to serve as vigilantes.Óglaigh na hÉireann for 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.[27] In 2010The Real Irish Republican Army shot a man in the legs in Derry. The man was a convicted sex offender.[28]The Continuity Irish Republican Army in 2011 were blamed for the punishment beating of a heroin dealer in Clondalkin, Dublin. The man had previously been ordered to leave the country.[29]
On April 15, 2011, a group of women inCherán armed with rocks and fireworks attacked a bus carryingillegal loggers armed with machine guns inMichoacán associated 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.[30]
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.[31]
Since theMay 9, 2016 Philippine elections and 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 execution during hiswar on drugs.[32] 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.[33]
Frankpledge – System of surety in medieval England, also an American form of frontier-vigilantism which emerged as a "mutation" of the Saxon tradition offrankpledge
Feud – Long-running argument or fight, a now-illegal form of non-governmental interpersonal violence which is currently practiced by feudal groups,organized criminals andgangs
Posse comitatus – Aspect of common lawPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets, an indirect descendant of the Northern Germanichird orfyrd system, 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
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Kowalewski, David. "Vigilantism." inInternational handbook of violence research (Springer Netherlands, 2003). 339-349.
Moncada, Eduardo. "Varieties of vigilantism: Conceptual discord, meaning and strategies."Global Crime 18.4 (2017): 403-423.online
Pratten, David. "The politics of protection: perspectives on vigilantism in Nigeria."Africa 78.1 (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 Politics 6.4 (1974): 541-570.online
