ABSTRACT
The term linchamientos only came into being in 1996, taking the name from the racially motivated lynchings of the Deep South of the United States (Rothenberg 1998). Vigilante attacks that occurred before this date are not considered part of this wave of lynchings despite striking similarities. But such temporal omissions are not the only place where the boundaries between lynchings and other forms of violence are blurred. There are fine lines between lynchings and riots; between organised vigilantism and spontaneous attacks; between gangs who patrol their territories and vigilantes who police their communities. Collective violence is inherently chaotic and the language we use to describe it is inevitably imperfect. This chapter explores how these forms of collective violence pass across these porous divides and how this affects our understanding and analysis of violence.
