Harsh Justice: Explaining Support for Retribution and Vigilantism in Mexico

• In Event: The Politics of Control and Resistance in Violent Contexts

Abstract

Why do people support harsh and sometimes extrajudicial justice? Support for punitive practices and policies is correlated with increasing levels of criminal violence, yet they often make the violence worse. We develop a theory that argues that individuals care about the effectiveness of justice policies (utilitarian), but also have a desire to see people punished for crimes with what they consider to be a just response, irrespective of the consequences (deontological). We argue that when individuals are exposed to violence their deontological desire to punish perpetrators can outweigh their utilitarian motives to see violence reduced, and thus lead them to support harsh, vigilante justice. We test our theory using a combination of qualitative and quantitative text analysis of 65 in-depth interviews in Western Mexico, a region affected by organized crime, state abuse, and vigilante violence.

Authors

• Hannah Baron, Brown University

• Omar Garcia-Ponce, George Washington University

• Lauren E Young, University of California, Davis

• Thomas Zeitzoff, American University