The Challenge of Community-Based Armed Groups: Towards a Conceptualization of Militias, Gangs, and Vigilantes

Schuberth, Moritz

doi:10.1080/13523260.2015.1061756

Cited by 51 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Technically, all vigilante organizations meet this definition of militia. See also Schuberth (2015). vigilante justice (U.S. Department of State, 2005), which is consistent with the idea of patron-funded vigilantism.…”

Section: What Are Vigilante Organizations?supporting

confidence: 54%

Inequality and the Emergence of Vigilante Organizations: The Case of MexicanAutodefensas

Phillips

2016

Comparative Political Studies

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What explains the emergence of vigilante organizations? Throughout the world, vigilantes emerge to illegally punish perceived criminals, often leading to serious consequences. However, the literature presents partial and conflicting explanations for this phenomenon. This article argues that local economic inequality creates a situation ripe for vigilante organizations. Inequality creates demand for vigilantism because poorer citizens feel relatively deprived of security compared to wealthier neighbors who have advantages regarding private and public security. Additionally, inequality suggests a patron-andworker distribution of labor, and this is ideal for organizing a particular type of group, the patron-funded vigilante group. Empirical tests use original data on the 2013 wave of Mexican vigilante organizations, present in 13 of Mexico's 32 federal entities. Municipallevel income inequality is robustly associated with organized vigilantism. Less support is found for competing explanations.

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Section: What Are Vigilante Organizations?supporting

confidence: 54%

Inequality and the Emergence of Vigilante Organizations: The Case of MexicanAutodefensas

Phillips

2016

Comparative Political Studies

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“…The given case study has revealed that Civilian Joint Task Force is a communitybased defense group that emerged in response to the inadequate protection provided by the state [18]. According to Schubert [19], such groups are formed to fill the gaps in the poor performance of the state, failing to protect its citizens at the times of fullblown protracted conflicts. The data revealed that the ineffectiveness of the state in initiating necessary counterinsurgency measures to ensure protection from the heinous crimes of Boko Haram appeared to be the main motivation for people's participation in the CJTF group.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Militia Participation in Counterinsurgency: The Impetus of Civilian Joint Task Participation in Combating Boko Haram in Nigeria

Gana¹

2019

Vestn. Ross. univ. družby nar., Ser. Politol.

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Since 2013, the north of Nigeria has witnessed an increased involvement of the militia group ‘Civilian Joint Task Force’ (CJTF) in combating the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram. The mobilization of the Civilian Joint Task Force brought a tremendous success to the counterinsurgency operation. Before the CJTF’s engagement, the antiterrorism efforts of the government were marred by negligent performance. In addition to helping decrease the attack frequencies and number of fatalities caused by the insurgent group, the militia succeeded in expelling Boko Haram fighters from the towns and villages they had previously occupied. However, the unprecedented participation of the Civilian Joint Task Force in the counterinsurgency campaign has raised certain suspicions of the public in regards to the CJTF’s ulterior motives. This paper, therefore, explores the motives that triggered people’s participation in the Civilian Joint Task Force with the aim to combat the Boko Haram insurgent group. The current paper is a qualitative research, designed as a case study. The empirical data were collected by means of an in-depth interview involving 13 respondents, among who were the members of the CJTF, community leaders and government officials in Yobe State, Nigeria. The findings show that people’s participation in the CJTF is voluntary, with the main motivation being the necessity to defend the community due to the state’s failure to provide adequate protection. The article points out an urgent need to demobilize and deradicalize the participants in order to prevent the CJTF from further jeopardizing local communities’ peace and stability.

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“…A common form of civilian selfprotection is vigilantism, that is, self-help groups that organize to protect their communities from non-state or state security actors. Predominantly youth-based, vigilante groups deliver a range of public or political goods, including but not limited to providing order and dispute resolution services and establishing public norms of compliance and cooperation with local populations (Agbiboa, 2019;Cheng, 2018;Schuberth, 2015;Van Metre, 2019). At the same time, vigilantes can (and often) exacerbate conflicts as polarizers of local communities and instigators of communal violence (Clayton & Thomson, 2016;International Crisis Group, 2017;Rodgers, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vigilante youths and counterinsurgency in Northeastern Nigeria: the civilian joint task force

Agbiboa

2020

Oxford Development Studies

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Building on the broader literature on vigilantism, communal war and conflict, this paper examines why and how the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in northeastern Nigeria mobilized into a pro-government militia with the aim of extirpating Boko Haram insurgents, sponsors and supporters from their communities. It provides a rich and diverse empirical evidence and analysis of why and how local youths joined the CJTF, its modus operandi, and the nature of its relationship to the military and local populations. The participation of people from a variety of religious and ethno-linguistic groups in the CJTF's counterinsurgent vigilantism point to a collective sense of duty that transcends popular narratives of ethnicity and religion as central to the politics of protection in contemporary Nigeria.

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The Challenge of Community-Based Armed Groups: Towards a Conceptualization of Militias, Gangs, and Vigilantes

Cited by 51 publications

References 38 publications

Inequality and the Emergence of Vigilante Organizations: The Case of MexicanAutodefensas

Inequality and the Emergence of Vigilante Organizations: The Case of MexicanAutodefensas

Militia Participation in Counterinsurgency: The Impetus of Civilian Joint Task Participation in Combating Boko Haram in Nigeria

Vigilante youths and counterinsurgency in Northeastern Nigeria: the civilian joint task force

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