“Self-Help” Justice and the Vigilante Victim’s Conundrum

Abstract

In part, this chapter looks at the issue of individual and collective victimisation, in terms of historical injustices created by imperialism and the extensive consequences of colonial subjugation. Responses to state crimes can result in paramilitarism as perceived in the term “freedom fighting”, to anarchic guerrilla-warfare, as seen in The Lieutenant of Inishmore and A Very Very Very Dark Matter, respectively. Additionally, the actions of a lone wolf vigilante doling out “self-help” justice is at the core of A Behanding in Spokane. Seven Psychopaths looks at various forms of protest justice, from pacifist stalking to self-immolation. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri considers grief, the depths of rage that transpire when justice is neither done nor seen to be done, but most of all, how the side-lining of civilised protest might transpose measured actions into abhorrent vigilantism.