Snitching : : Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justice / / Alexandra Natapoff.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Natapoff, Alexandra,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2009]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

Winner of the 2010 American Bar Association Honorable Mention for BooksAlbert Burrell spent thirteen 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. After being released by Chicago prosecutors, Darryl Moore-drug dealer, hit man, and rapist-returned home to rape an eleven-year-old girl.Such tragedies are consequences of snitching-police and prosecutors offering deals to criminal offenders in exchange for information. Although it is nearly invisible to the public, criminal snitching has invaded the American legal system in risky and sometimes shocking ways. Snitching is the first comprehensive analysis of this powerful and problematic practice, in which informant deals generate unreliable evidence, allow criminals to escape punishment, endanger the innocent, compromise the integrity of police work, and exacerbate tension between police and poor urban residents. Driven by dozens of real-life stories and debacles, the book exposes the social destruction that snitching can cause in high-crime African American neighborhoods, and how using criminal informants renders our entire penal process more secretive and less fair. Natapoff also uncovers the farreaching legal, political, and cultural significance of snitching: from the war on drugs to hip hop music, from the FBI’s mishandling of its murderous mafia informants to the new surge in white collar and terrorism informing. She explains how existing law functions and proposes new reforms. By delving into the secretive world of criminal informants, Snitching reveals deep and often disturbing truths about the way American justice really works.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: The Real Deal -- I. Anatomy of an Informant Deal -- II. Implications of Informant Practices -- Chapter 2: To Catch a Thief -- I. Creating and Rewarding Criminal Informants -- 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 -- Chapter 3: Beyond Unreliable -- I. Lying Informants -- II. Law Enforcement Dependence on Informants -- III. Juries -- IV. When the Innocent Plead Guilty -- V. The Important but Limited Role of Procedural Protections -- Chapter 4: Secret Justice -- I. Investigation -- II. Plea Bargaining -- III. Discovery -- IV. Public Transparency and Executive Accountability -- V. Informants and the Internet -- Chapter 5: Snitching in the ‘Hood -- I. More Snitches -- II. More Crime -- III. More Violence -- IV. Racial Focusing -- V. More Tension between Police and Community -- VI. More Distrust -- VII. Snitching as a Costly Social Policy -- Chapter 6: “Stop Snitching” -- I. “In the Game” -- II. Distrust of the Police -- III. Witness Intimidation -- IV. The Role of Rap and Hip Hop -- V. What Does “Stop Snitching” Mean? -- Chapter 7: How the Other Half Lives: White Collar and Other Kinds of Cooperation -- I. FBI Informants and Organized Crime -- II. Political Informants -- III. White Collar Crime and Cooperation -- IV. Terrorism -- Chapter 8: Reform -- I. Defining Informants -- II. Data Collection and Reporting on Informant Creation and Deployment -- III. Informant Crime Control and Reporting -- IV. Protecting Informants -- V. Defense Informants -- VI. Police Investigative Guidelines -- VII. Prosecutorial Guidelines -- VIII. Heightened Judicial Scrutiny -- IX. Criminal Procedure Reforms -- X. Improving Police-Community Trust and Communication -- Conclusion -- I. Governing through Crime, Governing through Informants -- II. Implications -- Notes -- Index -- About the Author