The "Dark Side" of Community Ties: Collective Action and Lynching in Mexico.

ABSTRACT: Lynching remains a common form of collective punishment for alleged wrongdoers in Latin America, Africa, and Asia today. Unlike other kinds of collective violence, lynching is usually not carried out by standing organizations. How do lynch mobs overcome the high barriers to violent collective action? I argue that they draw on local community ties to compensate for a lack of centralized organization. Lynch mobs benefit from solidarity and peer pressure, which facilitate collective action. The study focuses on Mexico, where lynching is prevalent and often amounts to the collective beating of thieves. Based on original survey data from Mexico City and a novel lynching event dataset covering the whole of Mexico, I find that individuals with more ties in their communities participate more often

SUBMITTER: Nussio E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11294007 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature