mob justice
Vigilante group punishment
Mob justice is punishment inflicted by a crowd rather than through legal channels—vigilante action that bypasses courts and due process.
The term typically describes violent retribution: beatings, lynchings, or killings carried out by groups who believe formal justice has failed or is too slow.
The suspect was dragged from the police station and subjected to mob justice before any trial could take place.
- vigilantismExtralegal enforcement by civilians
- lynchingExtrajudicial killing by mob
- kangaroo courtIllegitimate proceeding ignoring procedure
- riotsViolent public disturbances
- Salem witch trialsColonial American persecution of alleged sorcerers
extrajudicial · crowd psychology · scapegoating · mass hysteria · pillory · tar and feather · retribution · necklace · civil unrest · hate crimes · groupthink · stocks · public executions · summary execution · torches · collective behavior · outrage · vengeance
- social crueltybullying, harassment, humiliation, shaming, mocking
- witch huntswitch trials, witch hunt, witch hunts, Salem witch trials, Salem trials
- vigilantesBatman, Punisher, Robin Hood, Zorro, avenger
- mob violenceriot, lynching, vigilantism, looting, rampage
- vigilantismvigilante, vigilantism, lynching, posse, kangaroo court
- online vigilantismdoxxing, public shaming, cancel culture, online mobs, witch hunt
mob justicedue process
Guaranteed judicial fairness
rule of law · fair trial · judicial process · legal proceedings · criminal justice system
mob justicepresumption of innocence
Default legal blamelessness
right to counsel · defendant's rights · habeas corpus · legal representation · right to appeal
justice, mob, unjust, mobilize, mobbed, justifiable, judiciary, mobilization, mobbing