I find it a difficult one really. There's a line between 'being a pirate' and just griefing people. The problem with the miner ganking thing, is that it'd be alright if there was some way you could defend yourself - either by paying people to protect your ship or something, but it's basically just 'if you get caught that's it.'
More than that, it'd be fine if there were any proper repercussions for those doing the ganking.
Several easy counters include.
1. Tanking your ship properly.
2. Jamming them out the moment they aggress.
3. Using an alt to gank them first or having a mate do it.
4. Paying them off.
5. Doing something else (I mean really, hisec mining earns so little you're essentially setting yourself up as a space peasant).
6. Mining somewhere quieter, the vast majority of these ganks happen along major trade routes.
7. Warping off when an obvious ganking ship appears on short range d-scan.
8. Turning the tables on them. Lay out some juicy looking bait and kill them when they attack it.
9. Mining in mission sites rather than anomalies. The vast majority of gankers won't bother to probe people down, and even if they do then the probes give you loads of advance warning.
10. Hiring a group to keep them busy.
11. Using logi to repair the incoming damage until Concord shows up.
That's far from an exclusive list of the options available. The actual issue IMO is that many people are quick to fall into a victim mentality instead of actually taking steps to improve their situation. "Oh no they blew up my ship, this is terrible. Better keep doing the exact same thing in the exact same way!"