Social exclusion and vigilantism toward criminal offenders as compensatory reactions to the perceived inefficacy of social control.

Abstract

Based on subjective group dynamics theory, we examine the idea that when facing ingroup's social control inefficacy, normative individuals adopt intense and negative social control measures toward ingroup deviants based on a group protection motive. In Study 1 (N = 122), participants learned that a criminal offense had either been trialed in court (social control efficacy) or not (social control inefficacy). In Study 2 (N = 107), participants reported their perceived efficacy of ingroup's social control mechanisms. In both studies, participants' agreement with excluding ingroup deviants and with informal social control measures (e.g., vigilantism) are associated with perceived ineffective formal social control mechanisms. Participants' ingroup protection concerns predicted such agreement in Study 2. These findings suggest that the unsuccessful social reintegration of offenders can be influenced by the normative members' intension to informally compensate for ingroup's ineffective social control mechanisms. Public Significance StatementTrust in the justice system is key to reinforce individuals' commitment to the values shared by their community. We suggest that when individuals perceive that formal social control mechanisms (as is the case of the justice system) are ineffective, they increase their agreement with the implementation of informal alternative means of crime control (namely, exclusion of offenders and vigilantism). Indeed, when the justice system fails, individuals tend to compensate such failure through informal mechanisms of social control on behalf of group protection, namely by agreeing with vigilantism practices and the exclusion of offenders from the community. These mechanisms are particularly relevant and deserve attention because they are in contradiction with the formal goals of the justice system regarding offenders' resocialization and reintegration processes.