Mob justice also known as instant justice is when a particular community (a mob) take the law into their own hands to injure, maim or kill suspected criminals who are a menace to that community. With the frequency of mob justice incidences in South Africa, the term has been dubbed as a South African language because of the characteristically violent nature of these cases in the country. The mob justice cases, show that for many communities, it is not enough to only beat a suspected perpetrator and leave them to be dealt with by the police, but here, mob justice usually involves castration, dousing with petrol, necklacing with tyres and setting them alight – a picture vividly reminiscent of how so-called sellouts of the black communities were dealt with during apartheid. On today’s view of the nation, we want to get into the psyche of the community, which is composed of law-abiding citizens who are turned into criminals themselves by virtue of carrying out mob justice that results in the ending of a life. Professor Malose Langa, Senior Psychology Lecturer at Wits University, and Dr Steven Gordon, Senior Research Specialist in the Developmental, Capable and Ethical research division at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), join Lerato Mbele for the conversation.