Politic al Assassination Events as a Cross-cultural Form of Alternative Justice1

Abstract

Criminals or deviants can be viewed as trying to exercise some form of social control via being involved in deviance and crime. Interpreted somewhat differently, the implication is that those deviating from the law or norms are involved in practicing an interesting form of doing justice. This paper explores the meaning of a specific form of a political deviant act-that of political assassinations-and conceptualized it as a particular form of social control within an alternative system of informal justice. The nature, characterization, type, and mode of operation of this form of informal and alternative justice are examined.