Vigilante
Origin
Spanish, watchman, guard, from vigilante vigilant, from Latin vigilant-, vigilans
Definitions
- 1: a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate); broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice
Description
A vigilante is an individual or group who undertakes law enforcement without legal authority or illegal authority. "Vigilante justice" is rationalized by the idea that adequate legal mechanisms for criminal punishment are either nonexistent or insufficient. Vigilantes typically see government as ineffective in enforcing the law; and such individuals often presume to justify their actions as fulfillment of the wishes of "the community".
Persons alleged to be "escaping the law" or "above the law" are sometimes the victims of vigilantism.
Vigilante behavior involves various degrees of violence. Vigilantes may assault targets verbally or physically or may vandalize property or actually kill individuals.
