"Criminals, We're Coming": Costumed Crime-Fighter Legal Consciousness and Punishment Philosophies in Movement-Produced New Media

Authors

Michael Aiello, State University of New York at Fredonia

Abstract

I examine the constructions of costumed crime-fighting reflected in ‘Phoenix’s Journal,’ a blog describing the efforts of a group called the Rain City Superhero Movement (RCSM). The RCSM blog provides a self-produced portrait of the group, allowing for analysis of this critical case of vigilantism within their cultivated domain. The theoretical framework of legal consciousness guides a qualitative and ethnographic content analysis exploring two research questions concerning the punishment philosophies of the RCSM, and how costumed crime-fighters use the law to frame their behavior. The RCSM blog indicates a fundamental tension between the members as vigilantes, incapacitating threats to the public, and their role as participants in a larger phenomenon of community crime prevention. The online presence of the RCSM suggests a disinclination to punish beyond incapacitation, as well as portraying these costumed crime fighters as mainly operating within the constraints of the law.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Aiello, Michael (2020) ""Criminals, We're Coming": Costumed Crime-Fighter Legal Consciousness and Punishment Philosophies in Movement-Produced New Media," Qualitative Criminology (QC): Vol. 8: No. 4, Article 1.
Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/qc/vol8/iss4/1