Casting the First Stone: Understanding Attitudes towards Extralegal Violence in Brazil

Casting the First Stone: Understanding Attitudes towards Extralegal Violence in Brazil

Why do citizens support extrajudicial violence? While endorsement of vigilantism has significantly fallen in advanced democracies, lynchings remain tolerated throughout much of the developing world. In this paper, we conduct three survey experiments to investigate (i) which criminal profiles citizens prefer for extralegal punishment,  (ii) how individuals justify mob violence, and (iii) whether providing information reduces support for vigilantism. First, we run a conjoint experiment to identify criminal characteristics that are associated with a higher likelihood of lynching. In our second experiment, we show respondents a short article about a real lynching episode and ask them whether they see the mob’s motivations as legitimate. Lastly, we test whether providing information about the legal consequences of lynching, human rights guarantees, and the risk of retribution makes respondents less likely to endorse extralegal violence. We run the experiments (n = 2,400)…