Animal rights extremism: Victimization, investigation and detection of a campaign of criminal intimidation

Abstract

UK Ministry of Justice data and documents and police records are used to examine the crimes committed by SHAC (Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty) activists against Huntington Life Sciences, a company using animals for research. The police response and its effects on the animal rights campaign are also considered. The study is distinctive in that it explores activists’ modi operandi using case studies and the use of covert investigative techniques in policing offences against victims of animal rights activists. The effects of SHAC’s leadership ‘decapitation’ are measured, not only with offence numbers, but also by using sentence length to measure harm. The intelligence-led investigation proved effective in providing evidence of an organized campaign of intimidation that had very serious effects on families, employees and commercial profitability. Leadership removal resulted in a marked offending drop, offset somewhat by increased seriousness, so that overall harm fell, but less than expected from offence numbers. This counters the view that leadership removal in organizations motivated by ideological principles is pointless or counterproductive.