ABSTRACT The practice of vigilantism raises a number of broader provocative questions regarding state–society relations. But before pursuing these questions, we must first ask a critical conceptual question: what is vigilantism? In this article, I offer a conceptual analysis of vigilantism to identify and analyse the points of conceptual discord that make vigilantism an essentially contested concept. To address these challenges, I establish the concept’s core definitional dimensions and range of attributes. I then develop a root concept of vigilantism as the collective use or threat of extra-legal violence in response to an alleged criminal act. The root concept better positions researchers to effectively utilise different strategies to amend the concept for varying theoretical and empirical ends, avoid analytical pitfalls that beset existing conceptualisations and pursue promising new research questions.

中文翻译：

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警惕的多样性：概念上的矛盾，含义和策略

摘要警惕主义的实践提出了许多关于国家与社会关系的挑衅性问题。但是在追求这些问题之前，我们必须首先提出一个重要的概念性问题：什么是警惕主义？在本文中，我提供了对警惕性的概念分析，以识别和分析使警惕性成为本质上有争议的概念的观念分歧。为了应对这些挑战，我确定了该概念的核心定义范围和属性范围。然后，我提出了警惕性的根本概念，即对涉嫌犯罪行为的集体使用或威胁法外暴力。根源概念可以使研究人员更有效地利用不同策略对概念进行修改，以实现不同的理论和经验目的，