ABSTRACT

Real Life Superheroes (RLSH) create unique superhero personas and engage in a variety of community-based activities, including street patrols with the stated purpose of responding to and deterring crime. Prior research on RLSH explored the psychological motivations for participating in the subculture, engaging concepts such as edgework and extreme altruism, while also avoiding framing RLSH as vigilantes. Most RLSH reject the vigilante label, even though the community recognizes vigilante traditions as a precursor to the contemporary movement and cites popular vigilante superheroes as influences. In this study, we apply a criminological conceptualization of vigilantism through an analysis of RLSH interviews and social media posts over a two-year period. Based on this framework, RLSH activity classifies as vigilantism despite declarations of community outreach and activism. We also identified themes of extreme altruism and communal narcissism in our data and provide observations about RLSH messaging during the pandemic.

摘要

现实生活中的超级英雄 (RLSH) 创造独特的超级英雄角色，并参与各种以社区为基础的活动，包括以应对和阻止犯罪为目的的街头巡逻。先前对 RLSH 的研究探讨了参与亚文化的心理动机，涉及边缘工作和极端利他主义等概念，同时也避免将 RLSH 视为义务警员。大多数 RLSH 拒绝接受义务警员的标签，尽管社区承认义务警员传统是当代运动的先驱，并引用了受欢迎的义务警员超级英雄作为影响。在这项研究中，我们通过分析两年期间的 RLSH 采访和社交媒体帖子，应用了治安罪的犯罪学概念。基于这个框架，尽管声明了社区外展和行动主义，但 RLSH 活动仍被归类为警惕性活动。我们还在我们的数据中确定了极端利他主义和社区自恋的主题，并提供了关于大流行期间 RLSH 消息传递的观察。