NCJ Number
148618
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 10 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1993) Pages: 661-681
Date Published
1993
Length
21 pages
Annotation
A national study of Federal criminal cases that arose from the FBI's Counterterrorism Program during the 1980's was conducted to determine the strategies of Federal prosecutors in relation to two concepts presented by Turk: explicit politicality and exceptional vagueness.
Abstract
The sample included 213 persons named by the FBI as indicted during 1982-89 as a result of terrorism and terrorism-related investigations. This data set includes almost all of the indicted right-wing terrorists as well as an overwhelming majority of the most famous left-wing group members from the 1970's and 1980's. Details on each case were obtained through reviews of case files. Results revealed that the 213 persons indicted belonged to 21 different terrorist groups and had been indicted for 1,363 violations of Federal law. The analysis also indicated that, in keeping with historical studies of American political crime, prosecutorial efforts to depict terrorists as common criminals have been the most often used and most successful strategy. In contrast, prosecutors' efforts to explicitly politicize the terrorists' crimes have been largely unsuccessful and are rarely used. Tables, footnotes, list of cases, and 32 references (Author abstract modified)