Analyzing "Ecoterrorism" Law from a Critical Criminology Perspective

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

Animal and environmental activism groups have been labeled the number one domestic terrorism threat in the United States by the FBI. The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, enacted in 2006, expanded the types of activist activities that could be labeled and punished as terrorism to include behavior that "damages or causes the loss of property" and includes loss of profits in the defintion of those "damages." While terrorism is traditionally defined as the use of violence or the threat of violence, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act blatantly labels activities that cause a loss of corporate profits as terrorism. Critics of this law argue that it "chills" free speech and creates a specific class of crime for a specific form of protest. This research goes beyond constitutionality of this law and analyses the creation and passage of "ecoterrorism" laws from a critical criminology perspective. Specifically, this research addresses the ability of the powerful to define as criminal any behavior that threatens the interests of powerful corporations and to provide a "false consensus" of terrorism through mass media. It also highlights the unique circumstance of a social movement that focuses upon the oppression of non-human beings from a (mostly) middle class base.

Author

• Kari Miller, Rutgers University