Social Exclusion and Vigilantism Toward Criminal Offenders as Compensatory Reactions to the Perceived Inefficacy of Social Control

Based on subjective group dynamics theory, we examine the idea that when facing ingroup’s social control inefficacy, normative individuals adopt intense and negative social control measures toward ingroup deviants based on a group protection motive. In Study 1 (N = 122), participants learned that a criminal offense had either been trialed in court (social control efficacy) or not (social control inefficacy). In Study 2 (N = 107), participants reported their perceived efficacy of ingroup’s social control mechanisms. In both studies, participants’ agreement with excluding ingroup deviants and with informal social control measures (e.g., vigilantism) are associated with perceived ineffective formal social control mechanisms. Participants’ ingroup protection concerns predicted such agreement in Study 2. These findings suggest that the unsuccessful social reintegration of offenders can be influenced by the normative members’ intension to informally compensate for ingroup’s ineffective social control mechanisms.