‘Killing Is Just The Best Solution’: Lynching As Informal Incapacitation

This article highlights two overlooked drivers of lynching violence: the will to ensure that caught offenders will no longer victimize anybody, and the need for perpetrators of lynching to mitigate the risks associated with their participation. It uses the concepts of lethal and non-lethal informal incapacitation to explain lynching outcomes (‘killing’ and ‘serious beatings’) that are otherwise unintelligible. Evidence is drawn from individual and group interviews with more than a hundred key informants in Nigeria.