Ethics and morality drive a peaceful community and country; however, certain events deprive of the ethical integrations in place. Ethics refers to the principles that control or govern the behavior of an individual or group of people (Brown, 2018). Ethics reflects on human beings and how they interact with others in the community to bring about freedom, justice, and responsibility. Ethics involves morality, and this is distinguishing between right things and those which are wrong. In other words, morality is all about doing the expected right things in the community (Cowburn, 2021). Many events have come to disrupt the overflow of ethics and morality in societies taking away peoples’ happiness and peace and, in most cases, going against the government laws, for example, mob justice.
Mob justice
Mob is a situation when the suspected person to have committed a crime is beaten up and humiliated by mostly a crowd. It can also be called lynching, and it is always illegal because there are no rights extended to the people to punish others caught in criminal offenses. Historically people viewed mob justice as a way of getting rid of the wrongdoers in the communities by beating them up and sometimes killing them (Aliu et al., 2023). A violent person always ignites others to start the commotion of punishing the victim in this activity. Several causes have brought mob justice, but the judicial system in a country is seen as the predominant cause. The judicial system encompasses corruption and weak law enforcement among government officials. Legislation is also a key cause since there are no strict laws on such activities in most countries with constant mob justice cases (Habeeb & Gholami, 2018). In some countries with strict laws on mob justice, people involved are unaware due to illiteracy and, most times, ignorance, so they just start up the violence. There is always no specific group of people according to sex, race, age, or color subjected to mob justice, but rather in any activity of being a wrongdoer, someone can be subjected to mob justice (Bekele, 2022).
Different steps can be taken in different countries to bring back peace and morality per mob justice, for example, education, employment, police force, and judicial system. Education of the masses will help eradicate illiteracy and create a more civilized space for citizens to handle cases well. It also helps eradicate ignorance and create awareness of the implications of mob justice to the victim and the crowd (Polizzi, 2019). That many people are wrongdoers due to unemployment and they would be subjected to mob justice, the government of a specific country should create jobs for these people to eradicate mob justice. Additionally, the legislation board should pass laws with penalties for any crowd caught in mob justice and the police force should work actively to enforce these laws. Mob justice does not only happen in low-income earning states but also high-income earning states (Brown, 2018). This comes from the experiences or ongoing activities in the country, like politics, social demography, and economic rivalries.
Conclusion
The rules for handling mob justice cases are violated, and morality is taken at low initiation in the community. The victim suffers much damage physically through beatings, emotionally, trauma, and even economically, where the crowd may destroy his or her property (Polizzi, 2019). Above all, if the country has strict policies on mob justice, the crowd can be penalized by law since mob justice is considered to be illegal. The cultural issues, historical context, moral courage, and political view of moral justice are discussed above (Aliu et al., 2023).
References
Aliu O, S., Sodiq A, O., Mubarak O, A., Akindele A, H. (2023). Establishing the nexus among mob justice, human rights violations, and the state: Evidence from Nigeria, International Journal of Law, Crime, and Justice, Volume 72, 100573, ISSN 1756-0616, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2022.100573.
Habeeb A, S., & Gholami, H. (2018). Mob justice, the corrupt and unproductive justice system in Nigeria: An empirical analysis, International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, Volume 55, Pages 40-51, ISSN 1756-0616, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2018.09.003.
Polizzi, D. (2019). The Impossibility of Criminal Justice Ethics: Toward a Phenomenology of the Possible. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 63(1), 135–153. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X18779182
Brown, P. (2018). Ethical challenges to research in the criminal justice system. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cbm.2061
Cowburn, M. & Wahidin, A. (2021). Ethics and Criminology and Criminal Justice. In The Encyclopedia of Research Methods in Criminology and Criminal Justice (eds J.C. Barnes and D.R. Forde). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119111931.ch34
Bekele, A. (2022). Mob Justice in Ethiopia: Examining Its Implications on Human Rights in Amhara Regional State. Beijing Law Review, 13, 640–651. DOI: 10.4236/blr.2022.133041.
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