whats distinguishes between a terrorist act and a criminal act?

Keith

While people like to throw around the term "terrorism" and "terrorist" to refer to anything related to its root word terror, this is different from the legal meaning of terrorism.

"Terrorism" is defined in the 18 USC 2331 and differentiates between "domestic terrorism" and "international terrorism".

Quote:
As used in this chapterâ€”
(1) the term â€œinternational terrorismâ€ means activities thatâ€”
(A) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intendedâ€”
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum;
(2) the term â€œnational of the United Statesâ€ has the meaning given such term in section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act;
(3) the term â€œpersonâ€ means any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property;
(4) the term â€œact of warâ€ means any act occurring in the course ofâ€”
(A) declared war;
(B) armed conflict, whether or not war has been declared, between two or more nations; or
(C) armed conflict between military forces of any origin; and
(5) the term â€œdomestic terrorismâ€ means activities thatâ€”
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intendedâ€”
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

So yes, terrorism is a criminal act committed for a particular purpose.

In short, as it is applied in my understanding, is a criminal act with the intent to subvert the authority of the state. In its simplest form, any kind of violent retaliation in response to an act of the state; a court ruling, passage of certain legislation; is terrorism. More specifically, lets say a child molester is released from jail on a technicality and because you were angry at the courts decision you were to assault/batter/kill the child molester, you could be charged with terrorism.

The special thing about terrorism is that it is not necessary to prove which individuals committed which crimes. In the example above, if a group of people beat a child molester to death and nobody knows who inflicted what damage and who was just watching or cheering as the person was killed, rather than worrying about the reasonable doubt issue of which specific individual is the murderer, they can instead be all charged with terrorism.

This is also the reason why "terrorists" as the media may often charge are not charged with terrorism, because it is known who did what and the charge of terrorism is not necessary for conviction.

Pfo

Both are criminal acts, the terrorist does it for a cause beyond the crime.

Grasshopper

Macro-terrorism and Micro- terrorism are both criminal activities. The difference is the scale of these criminal activities. Micro-terrorism is by far the most damaging to our societies the world over.

David H

The eye of the beholder.

wizjp

motive

Carl P

a terrorist acts against a group of people to cause terror and damages. It is by nature a criminal act.

a criminal act can involve people but does not have to, such as robbing a closed store or stealing items when no one is there.

WRG

It is all about why they are doing it.

If they are doing it as part of an ongoing campaign to terrorize this or any country into changing their political position they are a terrorist.

The guy that does it because he hears voices is insane.

The guy that does it for income is criminal.

George

The color of their skin apparently.

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