Shadow Vigilantes: How Distrust in the Justice System Breeds a New Kind of Lawlessness

Product Description

This book describes a pervasive and destructive problem afflicting our current justice system, one that is eroding community confidence in law enforcement. The authors call it shadow vigilantism--a vicious cycle in which ordinary people, as well as criminal justice officials, are so fed up with the system's failures that they distort and subvert the system to force it to do the justice that it seems so reluctant to do on its own. The effects of this lack of trust are pervasive and pernicious- citizens refuse to report a crime or help investigators; jurors refuse to indict or convict; and officials manipulate a system that is perceived to be unreliable. This downward spiral eventually undermines the moral authority of law enforcement and creates widening rifts in the community.
The authors examine many examples of how the community has responded when the justice system is perceived to fail. The cases they cite include the infamous murder of Emmett Till, which became a cause that spurred on the NAACP and the civil rights movement; the Lavender Panthers, which formed in response to gay bashing during the 1980s; the Crown Heights Maccabees, a neighborhood watch group that successfully reduced neighborhood crime when the police failed to do so; the Animal Liberation Front, which struck back at institutions for perceived abuses to animals; Operation Perverted Justice, an organization that used online chat rooms to out pedophiles by publicizing their personal information (affiliated with NBC's To Catch a Predator); and many others. Photos are provided to illustrate these important cases.
As the authors stress, all of these examples highlight the importance of upholding a justice system that works to provide justice for all and is not perceived to condone legal technicalities that overturn just punishment, judicial rules that suppress evidence and let serious offenders go, and other actions that undermine public trust in the system.This book describes a pervasive and destructive problem afflicting our current justice system, one that is eroding community confidence in law enforcement. The authors call it shadow vigilantism--a vicious cycle in which ordinary people, as well as criminal justice officials, are so fed up with the system's failures that they distort and subvert the system to force it to do the justice that it seems so reluctant to do on its own. The effects of this lack of trust are pervasive and pernicious- citizens refuse to report a crime or help investigators; jurors refuse to indict or convict; and officials manipulate a system that is perceived to be unreliable. This downward spiral eventually undermines the moral authority of law enforcement and creates widening rifts in the community.
The authors examine many examples of how the community has responded when the justice system is perceived to fail. The cases they cite include the infamous murder of Emmett Till, which became a cause that spurred on the NAACP and the civil rights movement; the Lavender Panthers, which formed in response to gay bashing during the 1980s; the Crown Heights Maccabees, a neighborhood watch group that successfully reduced neighborhood crime when the police failed to do so; the Animal Liberation Front, which struck back at institutions for perceived abuses to animals; Operation Perverted Justice, an organization that used online chat rooms to out pedophiles by publicizing their personal information (affiliated with NBC's To Catch a Predator); and many others. Photos are provided to illustrate these important cases.
As the authors stress, all of these examples highlight the importance of upholding a justice system that works to provide justice for all and is not perceived to condone legal technicalities that overturn just punishment, judicial rules that suppress evidence and let serious offenders go, and other actions that undermine public trust in the system.
Paul H. Robinson is the Colin S. Diver Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the world's leading criminal law scholars. A prolific writer and lecturer, Robinson has published articles in virtually all of the top law reviews, lectured in more than a hundred cities and twenty-seven countries, and had his writings appear in thirteen languages. A former federal prosecutor and counsel for the US Senate Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedures, he was the lone dissenter when the US Sentencing Commission promulgated the current federal sentencing guidelines. He is the author or editor of fifteen books, including the standard lawyer's reference on criminal law defenses, three Oxford monographs on criminal law theory, a highly regarded criminal law treatise, and an innovative case studies course book.

Sarah M. Robinson works as a writer and researcher. She obtained a masters in counseling while serving as a sergeant in the army. Currently she works as a researcher and an author of nonfiction. She is the coauthor (with Paul H. Robinson) of Pirates, Prisoners and Lepers- Lessons from Life Outside the Law, and has two more books in production.