Vigilante Dilemna

Vigilantes 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). Their target might be personally motivated, but limited to citizens arrest as they're encountered. The social control vigilante group seeks to repair some transgression in the social order that threatens to affect the communal quality of life, values. The social control group is probably the most dangerous, as they affect mind control. Example, suggesting that violent music lyrics or games break down the entire society.

When someone has motive to cleanse impure elements of the populace, it's a semantic hop from vigilante, to Nazi. 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. The target must also be punished, and punished outside the law. Any and all legal matters on the subject are seen as unnecessary intrusions on the basic freedom that all communities enjoy to protect themselves. Zimring (2004) says that the vigilante mindset is the opposite of the due process mindset. Vigilante thinking is precisely the opposite of any notion of fairness, fair play, or a chance for acquittal.

Vigilantes do not care to wait for the police to finish their investigation, and they care less about any court's determination of proof. What they do care about is justice -- quick, final, cost-effective justice. To a vigilante, punishment should be inflicted upon those deserving of it at the first opportunity, no waiting, and the more severe the punishment, the better. These are all romantic notions that feed an appetite for punishment more than an appetite for vengeance.

Some of the more positive recent examples of vigilantism include the