Vigilante justice goes viral on Peru's streets as residents post Facebook videos of how they're taking matters into their own hands

A Facebook campaign to dish out vigilante justice in Peru has gone viral - after hundreds of people started posting pictures and videos of themselves catching and punishing petty criminals.

More and more fed-up Peruvians are taking the law into their own hands and recording their often humiliating acts of retribution on their cameras or mobile phones.

The 'Catch Your Thief' movement took off after one neighbourhood decided to stop calling the police after a crime, warning they would 'lynch' the culprits instead.

Social media users quickly began posting their own home-made footage showing alleged thieves and pickpockets receiving their comeuppance, often at the hands of a baying mob of revenge-seekers.

 

Punishments range from being stripped naked and whipped in public and being forced to perform tough military exercises to even being force-fed raw chili peppers. 

One video shows a woman undressed and being walked through a busy street, with a banner around her neck reading 'I'm a thief'.

Another shows two whimpering alleged pickpockets being forced to stand on anthills until they beg for mercy as the insects bite their legs, feet and private parts. 

The vigilantes claim the public acts of retribution are the best way of deterring would-be muggers or burglars, alleging that people have lost faith in the police to reduce crime.

But others warn that the craze has got out of hand and encourages criminal violence against the alleged offenders, without chance of a trial.

Over 100 similar Facebook pages have appeared in recent months, many with more brutal names, such as 'Catch your thief and leave him paralysed', 'Catch your thief and cut off his hands' and 'Catch your thief and castrate him'.