Legal Vigilantes

Recent years have seen a series of high-profile cases of private individuals law using lethal force in their purported attempts to enforce the criminal law. But these self-appointed private enforcers, such as Kyle Rittenhouse or the killers of Ahmaud Arbery, are only the most extreme cases of a vast amount of vigilante activity that occurs in this country. This article will examine different types of vigilante conduct and evaluate the social desirability of different forms of private punishment. It first defines the term “vigilante,” and then traces the history of vigilante actions throughout the nation’s history. The article then examines different forms of modern-day vigilante justice, creating a taxonomy of private punishments. Finally, the article analyzes how the law restricts (or fails to restrict) vigilante actions, and offers some proposals to amend the law to better regulate these actions.