Capstone Outline

Maegan Fort
Purpose: To expose the hidden heroes and villains throughout history
Thesis: Vigilantes exist in both history and present day with their morality being established by
the effect of their actions on their communities
What Makes a Vigilante a Vigilante
1. The Different Definitions
a. Common Definitions
i. “Use of flagrantly illegal methods and questionable practices in order to
meet the ends of vengeance and justice” (Criminal Justice Research Net)
b. Political Science Definitions (Criminal Justice Research Net)
i. Classify vigilantism as a subtype of political violence
c. Psychologists & Criminologists (Criminal Justice Research Net)
i. More noble motive
ii. Acts of good citizenship
iii. Plays a key role in establishing social order
d. Philosophically
i. Represent morally sanctimonious behavior
ii. Aimed to rectify or remedy structural flaws in society
iii. Modern vigilantes believe that violators of the social contract have not
been punished because of the existing legal system
iv. Some see the legal system as unfair to victims
e. Burrow’s Definition (Criminal Justice Research Net)
i. Establishes criteria
1. Members of an organized committee
2. Established members of the community
3. Proceed for a finite time and definite goals
4. Claim to act as a last resort because of a failure of the established
law enforcement system
5. Claim to work for the preservation and betterment of the existing
system
f. Dictionary Definition
i. One Dictionary (Dictionary.com)
1. A member of a vigilance committee
2. Any person who takes the law into his or her own hands, as by
avenging a crime
ii. Merriam-Webster (Crime Museum)
1. A self-appointed doer of justice
iii. Law Library Online Encyclopedia (Crime Museum)
 1. “The act of taking the law into one’s own hands and attempted to
enact justice according to one’s own understanding of right and
wrong; action taken by a voluntary association of persons who
organize themselves for the purpose of protecting a common
interest, such as liberty, property, or personal security; action taken
by an individual or group to enforce a higher law than that enacted
by society’s designated lawmaking institutions; private
enforcement of legal norms in the absence of an established,
reliable, and effective law enforcement body.”
2. Contributing Factors
a. Criminal Justice Research Net
i. Does not occur in a vacuum
ii. Good Samaritan Laws
iii. Views on self-defense
iv. Attitudes towards firearms for self-protection
v. Importance of property rights
vi. Believing that the establishment cannot offer safety and justice
vii. Protection becomes a matter of survival and self-responsibility
3. Characteristics (Criminal Justice Research Net)
a. No racial constraints
b. No geographic boundaries
i. Just as common in America as Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe
c. Manner of acts depend on time
i. Wild West: lynching
ii. Present: Digilantism
d. Manner of acts differs regionally
i. Africa
1. Punish publically
2. Necklacing  putting a gas filled tire around someone’s neck and
lighting it on fire
e. Often middle-aged men
f. Actions are carefully planned
i. Victims are often stalked
ii. PLANNING IS WHAT MAKES VIGILANTISM ILLEGAL
g. Protect identities from authorities
h. Seek out people with similar beliefs willing to fight for the same cause
i. Most do not carry out their actions for prolonged periods, but act sporadically
i. What differentiates them from hate groups, religious fanatics/factions, or
militias who have long-term objectives that can only be reached through
constant action
j. Feel justified in their actions
 k. “The vigilante mindset is the opposite of the due process mindset. Anger, fear,
and the need for vengeance drive vigilantes to act, but their reactive and impulsive
nature can have negative consequences”
4. Categorization
a. Three Types (Criminal Justice Research Net)
i. Classical Vigilantism
1. Old West
2. Vigilantism Committees = volunteer associations
3. Aggressive
4. Pursued suspected thieves, alcoholics, and others seen as threats to
their families, communities, and rights
5. Lynch Mobs
6. Targeted immigrants
7. Harassed or killed people they considered “undesirable”
8. EXAMPLES: Vigilante group in Montana killed hundreds of
suspected horse thieves; Jesse James; Dalton Gang of Coffeyville,
Kansas
9. “The absence of a formal criminal justice system in those days
compounded the problem, leaving many to rely on vigilante justice
for order and the punishment of criminals”
ii. Neo-Vigilantism
1. Origin: San Francisco in mid-1850s
2. Did not focus on noble causes
3. Persecuted ethnic and religious minorities
4. Responsible for the lynching of Mexicans and African Americans
during the late 1800s
iii. Pseudo-Vigilantism
1. Grew out of social unrest, social movements, and the increasing
crime rates
2. Origins in the 1960s
3. Purpose was to defend social causes by targeting individuals or
entities considered socially threatening or immoral
4. EXAMPLE: destruction of abortion clinics; burning of labs that
conducted animal research/testing
5. Modern Application: often seek violent retaliation against known
offenders (e.g. child molesters  MEGAN’S LAW ARTICLE) or
other social groups they consider a threat (e.g. illegal immigrants
or minorities)
b. Two Categories
i. Depends at what they choose to defend (Criminal Justice Research Net)
1. “Crime Control”
a. Concerned with the punishment of an offender
 b. Social order depends on offenders learning that their
criminal behavior and intolerable and unacceptable
2. “Social Control”
a. Concerned with general threats to social order
b. Can be people or events that are in conflict with established
communal values and are perceived as threatening the
quality of life
3. CRIME CONTROL focus on retaliation while SOCIAL
CONTROL focus on maintaining the status quo
Vigilantes in History
1. Boston Tea Party (Crime Museum)
a. December 16, 1773
b. American colonists dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor
2. Anti-Horse Thief Association (Crime Museum)
a. Founded in 1859 in Fort Scott, Kansas
b. Protected people from having their horses stolen during the Kansas-Missouri
Border War
3. Lynching (Encyclopedia.com)
a. Began as public whippings carried out in Virginia in the late 1700s
i. Led by Colonel Lynch
b. 1882-1951
i. 4,730 lynching victims during this time
1. More people than the number of court-ordered executions
c. New Orleans, 1891
d. After World War I
i. Mob attacks grew more vicious
ii. About 10% of the victims were burned alive
iii. Lynching tapered off by the 1930s and were rare by the 1940s
iv. Last recorded lynching was in 1951
4. First recorded – South Carolina, 1767 (Encyclopedia.com)
5. Largest vigilance committee – San Francisco, 1856 (Encyclopedia.com)
6. Bloodiest vigilance movements – Montana, 1863-1865, 1884 (Encyclopedia.com)
7. From 1767-1909 (Encyclopedia.com)
a. At least 326 vigilance movements across the country
b. Typical committees had between 100 to several hundred members
c. Fewer than half of the known movements claimed lives
d. 141 movements responsible for carrying out 1729 unauthorized executions
e. The larger the committee, the more violent
f. Most of the violence was in the West
8. Machiavelli The Prince (Encyclopedia.com)
a. End justifies the means
9. The Ku Klux Klan (Encyclopedia.com)
 a. “night rider” group
b. “Most of the victims of the Klan terror have been African Americans, Catholics,
and Jews”
10. The Underground Railroad and Its Partners (HSP)
a. The Vigilant Committee of Philadelphia
b. Vigilant Association
c. Robert Purvis
Present Day Vigilantes
1. Ken Rex McElroy (New York Times; BuzzFeed Blue)
2. Shadow Hare and Allegiance of Heroes
3. Real Life Superheroes Project
4. Sombra Negra
5. John Walsh (Crime Museum)
6. The Guardian Angels (Crime Museum)
7. The Black Monday (Crime Museum)
The Question of Morality
1. Effect of Ken Rex McElroy murder
2. Effect of Allegiance of Heroes and RLSP on community
3. Sombra Negra impact
4. John Wash Impact
5. The Impact of the Guys in the Megan’s Law article
Conclusion