Title Snitching : criminal informants and the erosion of American justice / Alexandra Natapoff

Edition Second edition Published New York : New York University Press, 2022

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Description 1 online resource Series Book collections on Project MUSE Contents Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Foreword -- Introduction: A Tale of Three Snitches -- 1. The Real Deal -- I. Anatomy of an Informant Deal -- A. Police -- B. Prosecutors -- C. Defense Counsel -- D. The Crimes -- E. The Rewards -- II. Implications of Informant Practices -- A. Crime-Fighting Benefits -- B. Compromising the Purposes of Law Enforcement -- C. Who's in Charge around Here? -- D. Mishandling and Corruption -- E. Crime Victims -- F. Vulnerable Informants -- G. Witness Intimidation and the Spread of Violence -- H. Systemic Integrity and Trust 2. Informant Law -- I. Creating and Rewarding Criminal Informants -- A. Police -- B. Prosecutors -- C. Sentencing and the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines -- D. Additional Benefits: Money and Drugs -- II. Using Informants as Investigative Tools -- III. Defendant Rights against Official Informant Use -- IV. Legal Limits: What the Government Can't Do -- V. Informant Use in Comparative Perspective -- VI. American Informant Law -- 3. Juries and Experts -- I. Juries -- II. Limits to the Trial Truth-Seeking Process -- III. Human Psychology -- IV. Experts -- V. Informant Expert Testimony VI. Juries and Experts Going Forward -- 4. Beyond Unreliable -- I. Lying Informants -- II. Law Enforcement Dependence on Informants -- III. The Corroboration Trap -- IV. When the Innocent Plead Guilty -- V. The Important but Limited Role of Procedural Protections -- 5. Secret Justice -- I. Investigation -- II. Plea Bargaining -- III. Discovery -- IV. Public Transparency and Executive Accountability -- V. Informants in the Digital Age -- 6. The Community Cost -- I. More Snitches -- II. More Crime -- III. More Violence -- IV. Racial Focusing and Inequality V. More Tension between Police and Community -- VI. More Social Instability -- VII. Snitching as a Counterproductive Social Policy -- 7. How the Other Half Lives -- I. FBI Informants and Organized Crime -- II. White Collar Crime and Cooperation -- A. Individual White Collar Cooperators -- B. Corporate Cooperation -- 1. Nonprosecution and Deferred Prosecution Agreements -- 2. The Employer-Employee Problem -- C. White Collar versus Street Snitching -- III. Political Informants -- A. Infiltrators and the First Amendment -- B. Political Corruption -- IV. Terrorism -- 8. Regulation and Reform Regulating the Informant Market -- I. Defining Informants -- II. Aggregate Data Collection on Informant Creation and Deployment -- III. Informant Crime Control -- A. Legislative Limits on Crimes for Which Cooperation Credit Can Be Earned or Used or Offered -- B. Limits on Crimes That Can Be Committed by Active Informants -- C. Reporting Informant Crimes -- D. Prosecuting Informant Perjury -- IV. Protecting Informants -- A. Limit the Use of Vulnerable Informants -- B. Counsel -- C. Witness Protection -- V. Defense Informants -- VI. Police Guidelines -- VII. Prosecutorial Guidelines VIII. Heightened Judicial Scrutiny Summary Reveals the secretive, inaccurate, and often violent ways that the American criminal system really works. Curtis Flowers spent twenty-three years on death row for a murder he did not commit. Atlanta police killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston during a misguided raid on her home. Rachel Hoffman was murdered at age twenty-three while working for Florida police. Such tragedies are consequences of snitching. Although it is nearly invisible to the public, the massive informant market shapes the American legal system in risky and sometimes shocking ways. Police rely on criminal suspects to obtain warrants, to perform surveillance, and to justify arrests. Prosecutors negotiate with defendants for information and cooperation, offering to drop charges or lighten sentences in exchange. In this book, Alexandra Natapoff provides a comprehensive analysis of this powerful and problematic practice. She shows how informant deals generate unreliable evidence, allow serious criminals to escape punishment, endanger the innocent, and exacerbate distrust between police and poor communities of color. First published over ten years ago, Snitching has become known as the "informant bible," a leading text for advocates, attorneys, journalists, and scholars. This influential book has helped free the innocent, it has fueled reform at the state and federal level, and it is frequently featured in high-profile media coverage of snitching debacles. This updated edition contains a decade worth of new stories, new data, new legislation and legal developments, much of it generated by the book itself and by Natapoff's own work. In clear, accessible language, the book exposes the social destruction that snitching can cause in heavily-policed Black neighborhoods, and how using criminal informants renders our entire penal process more secretive and less fair. By delving into the secretive world of criminal informants, Snitching reveals deep and often disturbing truths about the way American justice really works Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Description based upon print version of record Subject Criminal justice, Administration of -- United States. Informers -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United States Informers -- United States Law enforcement -- United States LAW / Criminal Law / Sentencing. Criminal justice, Administration of Informers Informers -- Legal status, laws, etc. Law enforcement United States Form Electronic book LC no. 2022032704 ISBN 9781479807741 1479807745

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