With Hollywood hype in certain movies such as "Boon Dock Saints" and numerous comic book heroes, how do real vigilantes fair up? Psychologically, these individuals typically inspire hope and a sense of justice to criminals that evade the long arm of the law. The vigilants themselves feel it is up to them to assist or serve justice that the law will not or cannot provide. Criminals feel added fear by someone being a "hero." However, in law, these vigilants are typically frowned upon by the government or seen as criminals themselves. Sometimes, vigilantes help society by ridding the neighborhood of criminals. Like in the comic book stories, however, they can cause damage while doing so.
In the case of Robert Bell and Gary Sellers, they accidentally killed the wife of a known pedophile while setting their car and house on fire. Why did they do this? Bell and Sellers wanted to do the community a favor by ridding a known pedophile. They accomplished this by making Timothy Chandler homeless, penniless, and now a widow. Did these vigilantes admit to their actions? Yes and with remorse.
There are other vigilantes that take more careful actions, however. For example, there are internet vigilantes out there who attempt to regulate the lack of control on the world wide web. These people will find online scams, phishing scams, and immoral content. After doing so, they will gather information on their target and inform the local law of their target of their misbehavior. On a less web-based example of positive vigilantism would be the Guardian Angels. These people are a non-profit international organization that do group patrols in dangerous neighborhoods, raise awareness to communities on safe practices, teach adults on how to make a citizen's arrest, and so on.
Vigilantes that work outside the law have proven that fair justice cannot be served in most cases. However, when working in legal bounds, these individuals can do good. However, should civilians be allowed to operate without legal approval? Do these vigilantes do more harm or good? Would you feel safe knowing a vigilante could be watching what you do? Vigilantes: Menace or Heroes? You decide.
I don't think that violent vigilantes are probably that common. If you think about it there are not that many positives to doing something like burning down somebodies house. This combined with the obvious negative aspects like getting arrested keep this activity down. I have never personally heard of any vigilantes anywhere near I live. If people want to help they should assist authorities with information instead of rash actions that can endanger themselves and others.