Civil Disobedience in the Climate Crisis - Criminal or Criminalized Protest? Phenomenology, Backgrounds and Radicalization Markers

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Katrin Höffler
• Subject Area: Criminology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 535951432

The aim of the research project is a criminological investigation of the climate protests in Germany, focusing on etiology and motivation. Qualitative interviews and an online survey of activists of the climate movement will be combined; the project will test theories of criminology, while also examining whether and to what extent radicalization potentials are present. The latter point, in particular, will help to ensure that the research is relevant to police and law enforcement practice.1. The first research question is why parts of the climate movement choose the path of civil disobedience, or more precisely: what is decisive for choosing forms of protest that (at least in part) cross over into criminality. a) The hypothesis in this context is that the motivational starting point of climate protesters is completely different from that of extremist movements, in particular from that of right-wing or religious extremist groups. b) A second hypothesis concerning motivation is linked to the criminal sanctioning of activists as a means of protest. The protest-sanction paradox will be investigated in this context: The protesters base their civil disobedience on the assumption that while harsh criminal sanctions do hurt, they also generate solidarity within society. The focus of protest research so far has been primarily on the immediate effects of protest, i.e., on the question of whether protest is capable of achieving the political goals pursued (here: climate protection). This project expands the perspective and focuses on the indirect effects and intermediate goals of protest by examining whether and to what extent the conscious acceptance of sanctions (because of the hoped-for intermediate goal: solidarity within society, increased attendance, and thus a reciprocal self-reinforcement of the protest) is a motivational factor for deviant behavior among protesters. 2. Based on this, the second research question is focused on the possibility of "radicalization". Radicalization potentials specific to each respective group of the climate justice movement (especially "Letzte Generation", "Extinction Rebellion", "Ende Gelände", "Fridays for Future") will be illuminated. A distinction will have to be made based on different forms of protest (is a radicalization towards targeted violence against people or toward a rejection of our free democratic order conceivable?). Further, different motivational drivers must be contrasted.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants