College
Strome College of Business
Program
Ph.D. Public Administration & Policy
Publication Date
3-28-2019
Abstract
The research presents a comparative case study of the prevalence of Jungle Justice (also known as vigilante justice) in developing and developed countries, using Nigeria and the United States of America as a comparative case study. In many countries in West Africa, and highly prevalent in Nigeria, jungle justice is categorized as a major social vice that militates against national growth and development. The act of a group of people (usually a mob) taking laws into their own hands by beating an alleged criminal to the point of death (or even to death) without following due process; this arbitrary method of counter-aggression sums up the core of jungle justice. This dehumanizing and degrading act requires urgent intervention because it not only negates the maintenance of societal law and order, but abuses the notion of right to free and fair trial, and largely infringes upon the fundamental human rights of the accused perpetrators. Interestingly, in the United States, a new form of jungle justice has emerged, which will be our basis for comparison. This form of vigilante justice (anti-pedophile activism) comprises of the false representation of young victims by the activist group (known as “catfishing” in modern terms) with the main goal of drawing the accused perpetrator out to a place the group can carry out jungle justice. It comes in the form of video recording the accused, parading the individual on social media, taunting, mocking and in some cases, beating them up. These acts, albeit heroic in nature, have implications for the 14th amendment to the US Constitution which promises equal protection under the law. Using theories and concepts of public justice, this study relates the impacts and implications of jungle justice to the principles of democracy, due process and the rule of law.
DOI
10.25883/wgtp-er88
Files
Download Full Text (1.7 MB)
Recommended Citation
Oguntuyo, Taiwo and Agim, Oge, "A Comparative Study of Prevalence of Jungle Justice in Developing and Developed Countries: A Case Study of Nigeria and USA" (2019). College of Business (Strome) Posters. 6.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/business_strome/6