Mob Justice and Its Dynamics

  

Date Posted: 3/23/2012 11:01:18 AM

Posted By: strictlyurban  Membership Level: Silver  Total Points: 209

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MOB JUSTICE

This is a spontaneous process of dispensing punishment or justice to those the community deems to have deserved such punishment. It is process by which a small group of individuals abrogate to themselves the power to dispense justice, discipline and correct on behalf of the justice system. This is a practice that is as old as human society itself and can trace its roots in religion. Mob justice thrives on spontaneity and emotive reaction to either criminality or offences against the society.

The likely victims of mob justice in society are:
Perverts
These are those persons that are found guilty of sexual negativity in such manner as to cause not only harm to the victim but trauma and embarrassment to the community. The most common offences punished by law include; bestiality, cretophilia, transvestites, pedophilias, etc.

Offences of morality
Those offences classified as being a threat to the moral sanctity of the community, these include; adultery, nudity/streaking, prostitution, marital rape, wife snatcher , night runners, etc.

Offenders of custom and traditions
Those persons seen to pollute cultural and custom purity of society. Typical victims are those who knowingly ignore rites of passage such as wife inheritance, witchcraft, circumcision.

Offenders of religion
Those persons who go against religious teachings and are found to engage in religiously offensive behavioral. These include desecrators, blasphemous, doom sayers, false prophets, and abusive priests.

Line thieves
Petty offenders who steal items that are personal and not worth legal redress such as; underclothes, utensils.

Street criminals
Criminals such as pick-pockets and snatchers, become victims of mob justice because they offend the public and invite spontaneous justice from the public.

Mob justice may be categorized as a vice in society because it is barbaric in nature; the violence associated with mob justice is usually of goring in nature. To engage in mob justice is to condone barbarism in society. It is

also archaic, primitive and outdated; it betrays modernity and reverses the achievements of civilization. It’s an old form of punishment that has no place in society since there already exists judicial systems. Mob justice is immoral, in that, it expressly contravenes the single most important principle of morality, that is, no human being has a right to take the life of another.
It betrays the basic principle of law that declares everyone innocent until proven guilty. Instead it victimizes without recourse. It allows any one person to execute accusatory doubt on people you do not like; it therefore erroneously punishes the innocent. It does not do what law is supposed to do; correct and punish, instead it terminates life, and thus it is a non-corrective terminal measure.

Through its revolting and disgusting manner, it usually leads to moral nausea; it traumatizes the victim, if he doesn’t die the participants and social spectators. It also upsets the social equilibrium and tranquility, because after every incident of mob justice fear and panic arise in the community.

Although mob justice is an old form of dispensing justice, it continues to persist in society irrespective of established judicial systems. This is because; it is a form of catharsis, it provides the community with an emotive release, when the community uses it on notorious offenders it feels a form of relief and security. It gives the society a feeling of enticement especially based o the fact that due process takes away the responsibilities from the community. It preempts corrupt practices specifically by the police and judicial personnel. It insulates the society against the vagaries of corruption.

Mob justice is cheap and time efficient; due process is very costly and time consuming through arresting, detaining, court sessions and waiting for judgments. It skips all this and dispenses judgment immediately. It is absolute and highly effective because it eliminates the problem from the community completely. It is used as a method of negative sanctioning against behavior that is considered repugnant. Furthermore, religions such as Islam use it to sanction religious related behavioral negativity.

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