Vigilante Justice in the United States of America
Having migrated from Europe, explorers of the American continent were at the beginning of the process of construction of a state. States have been serving as central structures bringing people to the common ground and contributing to the essential processes to society’s survival and prosperity. One of the major mechanisms helping states in achieving such goals have been justice systems, which punish those radically deviant from
the norms and rules of social cohabitation and harming either the society as a whole or separate individuals. The fundamental role of state’s justice system is to enforce the rule of law which would by punishment discourage
others from criminal activities and prevent the pursuit of the revenge by offended, as it leads to a vicious circle of vengeance. Evidently, the less the state is developed and functional the less people trust it in its essential duties. Therefore, in the American frontier days vigilante justice was the norm, because there was not enough trust put into the developing state and the social contract was weak. Not surprisingly, the one can still witness vigilantism in India or other states with weak levels of the rule of law.
Vigilantism certainly has progressed along with the development of the state. In its current forms vigilantism is any act taken by an individual who is attempting to enact his own rule of law or sense of morality, in essence taking the law into his own hands (Vander Ende, 2014). Accordingly in the modern day interpretation cybercriminals as the famous Julian Assange or Edward Snowden are vigilantes. At the same time it is evident,
that while revealing major secrets and fighting for morality they support the check and balance system which controls the US state. Their contribution is essential as we are losing more freedom everyday: we can
hardly contribute to development of a norm or a rule, and even harder to more informal activities of governments as surveillance. Therefore it in current interpretation, vigilantism can help us keep in the loop and control the path of the development of the state.
From a more negative perspective, as stated before, people do not see limits to their vengeance if a criminal …
