President Bush said the Minutemen who were stationed on
the Mexico Border were "Vigilantes"
The word vigilante is of Spanish origin and means "watchman" or
"guard" but its Latin root is vigil, which means "awake" or
"observant." In Islamic societies, the practice of "honor
killing" when a female member of the household shames the family name is a quite
widely-tolerated vigilante activity
When it is said that someone is taking the law into their own hands, this usually means
that they are engaging in vigilante activity, or vigilantism, although sometimes the
phrase "taking the law into your own hands". The phrase does not make for a good
definition. Everyone seems to have an opinion about what vigilantism is, but few people
have taken the trouble to define it. Worse yet, those who teach criminal justice and
criminology often warn about the dangers of vigilantism without really understanding or
explaining why, and the field of criminal justice is way too silent on this topic, gladly
substituting state-by-state comparisons on gun ownership and self-defense for real
research on the nature and dynamics of vigilantism.
To be sure, the study of vigilantism involves some complexities. There are a vast number
of controversial issues associated with vigilantism. To list some examples would include
Good Samaritan laws, the Right to Resist Arrest, Self-Defense Doctrine, the Militia Clause
of the Constitution, the Concealed Handgun Debate, Road Rage as a form of Vigilantism, and
Digilantism (getting back at Internet deviants by "digital vigilantism"). New
forms of vigilante behavior are constantly emerging, and it is of primary importance,
beforehand, to obtain an adequate conceptualization of basic vigilantism.
DEFINING VIGILANTISM
Some say vigilantism represented "morally sanctimonious" behavior aimed at
rectifying or remedying a "structural flaw" in society, with the flaw usually
being some place where the law was ineffective or not enforced. It treats vigilantism as a
societal reaction and not as a social movement.
For criminological purposes, this definition treats the vigilante the same as the
criminal. Both are victims of the same social forces, the same "structural
flaw," and vigilantes are the victim of a flawed society in the same way a criminal
can be considered a victim of society. The difference, of course, is that the criminal is
an enemy of society while the vigilante acts as a friend of society. The notion that
vigilantes are victims of society seems to be a dominant thrust in criminological thought
on the subject.
Some political scientists and psychologists have serious disagreements over the definition
of vigilantism. Political scientists are much more likely to categorize it as a subtype of
political violence or establishment violence and would label hate groups as vigilantes.
Psychologists, as well as some criminologists are much more likely to consider the
vigilante's noble motive and premeditation toward curbing evil as important, making it the
ultimate act of good citizenship.
It is important to distinguish between domestic terrorism... which seeks to harm the
social order... and vigilantism...which seeks to help the social order. The notion of
bigilante as a good citizen appears to have some currency in the literature. Vigilante
violence is the opposite of revolutionary violence as vigilantism always seeks to restore
order or preserve the status quo. Sometimes, it is often said that vigilantism is always
conservative.
HISTORY OF VIGILANTISM
American vigilantism arose in the Old West during the 1700s when, in the absence of a
formal criminal justice system, certain volunteer associations (called vigilance
committees) got together to blacklist, harass, banish, "tar and feather," flog,
mutilate, torture, or kill people who were perceived as threats to their communities,
families, or privileges. In some states, like South Carolina, these mobs had exotic names
like the Regulators. During the 1800's, most American towns with seaports had vigilante
groups that worked to identify and punish suspected thieves, alcoholics, and gamblers
among recently arrived immigrants. The state of Montana, however, holds the record for the
bloodiest vigilante movement from 1863 to 1865 when hundreds of suspected horse thieves
were rounded up and killed in massive mob action. Texas, Montana, California, and the Deep
South, especially the city of New Orleans, were hotbeds of vigilante activity in American
history.
Vigilantism seemed to die down after 1909 in America, but was resurrected in what some
experts call neo-vigilantism in the 1920s and pseudo-vigilantism in the 1970s. Neo-vigilantism
includes the anti-abortionist movement, subway and neighborhood crime
patrols, border security groups, and what might be best
described as a variant of bounty hunting for criminal fugitives. The lynchings during the
1920s, as well as more recent vigilante activity against immigrants are a type of
neo-vigilantism. Pseudo-vigilantism technically refers to controversial cases of
self-defense, like the Bernhard Goetz incident, in which a citizen kills somebody in
self-defense in anticipation of an attack. In the 1980s, and to some extent before then
(Campbell & Brenner 2000), vigilantism arose in Third World countries in the form of
"death squad" paramilitaries. In the 1990s, cyber-vigilantism emerged where
so-called "ethical" or "white hat" hackers go after sexual predators,
terrorists, spammers, auction frauds, and copyright infringers on the Internet. For
example, some activist groups are involved in anti-terrorism, and other activist groups
pose as "honeypot" targets for child molesters.
The "crime" of vigilantism is not expressly prohibited by law. What constitutes
the "crime" in vigilante activity is the underlying crime that is committed in
conjunction with vigilante activities. In charging the vigilante, the federal government
and most states attempt to make a distinction between whether the underlying crime is a
felony or misdemeanor. The most common sentence if the underlying crime is a misdemeanor
is probation. Reduced charges, such as third-degree murder or manslaughter, are common
when the underlying crime is a felony, the most common sentence being ten years in prison.
LEGITIMACY
Another typical pattern of vigilante group activity is the quest for recognition of
legitimate status. Vigilantes will often try to incorporate themselves as a private
security firm or a non-profit organization. They will try to be recognized by the local
sheriff so they can march in local parades or have a booth at the county or state fair.
They will try to be recognized by the Chamber of Commerce. They will try to be recognized
a part of the state militia, or the militia movement nationwide.
Others will avoid any association with the militia movement because they consider them
domestic terrorists. The more rational vigilante groups will avoid extremists and
fanatics.
The even more rational groups, such as the well-known Guardian Angels, will have extensive
rules of engagement where non-lethal force is used (even though their charter permits
deadly force). Legitimacy can sometimes be achieved by appearing to be better than the
government. The story of the Guardian Angels is instructive in this regard. Formed in
February 1979 by a young night manager of a Mcdonald's restaurant in the Bronx named
Curtis Sliwa, an unauthorized anti-crime patrol, first calling themselves "The
Magnificent Thirteen Subway Safety Patrol," became known as the Guardian Angels.
Sporting red berets, they stepped into subway cars and took up positions near the door.
Newspapers and television stations carried frequent reports on them, and the fact that the
police so obviously resented the Angels' presence only added to their glamour and
respectability.
Guardian Angels Web Site
Established vigilante groups will usually be one of two kinds: crime control vigilantes;
or social control vigilantes. The crime control vigilante group seeks to punish those whom
they believe are factually guilty of criminal wrongs (e.g. thieves, outlaws, fugitives
from justice), and in this sense are simply playing the role of bounty hunter except that
the bounty hunter is concerned for legal guilt, not factual guilt.
The social control vigilante group seeks to repair some transgression in the social order
that threatens to affect the communal quality of life, values, or sense of honor (e.g.
illegal immigrants taking jobs away from average workers, ethnic males who threaten to
seduce wives and daughters away, anything that makes one's children run away).
In Islamic societies, the practice of "honor killing" when a female member of
the household shames the family name is a quite widely-tolerated vigilante activity.
Vigilante groups that go after drug dealers would be an example of a mixed type, since
they are probably equally concerned about the crime of drug dealing as they are about
their children getting hooked on drugs.
THE VIGILANTE MINDSET
Vigilantes regard the criminals and people they target as living outside the social bonds
and communal ties that hold our society together. It's not so much that they dehumanize
their target, but that the target represents an alien enemy that must be defended against
and punished. Punishment is the foundational matter of justice.
Almost anyone who's ever thought about it knows than vengeance is an un-tempered emotion
like fear, lust, and anger. Justice and punishment should NOT be guided by banal,
primitive, un-tempered emotions. Instead, we normally try to moderate or temper our
feelings when thinking about how to punish somebody.
The vigilante knows it is not vengeance they seek, nor even some lending of respectability
to the spirit of vengeance. The vigilante is no avenger. The vigilante simply wants
punishment, or just deserts, and they want it swift and sure. The only problem is that
vigilante justice is sometimes too swift.
The only purpose that vigilantism serves is to turn the tables on those criminals who make
victims out of people. |