Vengeance with a Vengeance: Is it Worth to Study it?

Frijda (1994) warned that there was no major psychological study on vengeance, encouraging researchers to explore it. In the present article, an updated bibliographic search is done yielding similar conclusions but this time stating four arguments (cultural, judicial, criminal and psychological and social) to justify its study, concluding how society and individuals would benefit from it. Desires of vengeance (DoV) usually underlies the most prevalent crime in Spain. Some victims of bullying and mobbing can harbor DoV and turn into aggressors. In order to achieve a more objective judicial system, the measure of vindictive bias in juries may be helpful, as well as doing it within inmates, to assess risk of recidivism. From ancient to current times, DoV have modulated penal code modifications. These and some other reasons and possible future lines of research are shown to eventually propose an interdisciplinary study and further research so that from common effort of different disciplines we can achieve new knowledge of the matter.