Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Real Deal: Understanding Snitching

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

Chapter 2: To Catch a Thief: The Legal Rules of Snitching

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

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

A. Agent Provocateurs and Infiltrators

B. Political Corruption

III. White Collar Crime and Cooperation

A. Individual White Collar Cooperators

B. Corporate Cooperation

C. White Collar versus Street Snitching

IV. Terrorism

Chapter 8: Reform

I. Defining Informants

II. Data Collection and Reporting on Informant Creation and Deployment

III. Informant Crime Control and Reporting

A. Legislative Limits on Crimes for Which Cooperation Credit Can Be Earned

B. Limits on Crimes That Can Be Committed by Active Informants

C. Reporting Informant Crimes

IV. Protecting Informants

A. Witness Protection

B. Increase Availability of Counsel

C. Limit the Use of Juvenile, Mentally Disabled, and Addicted Informants

V. Defense Informants

VI. Police Investigative Guidelines

VII. Prosecutorial Guidelines

VIII. Heightened Judicial Scrutiny

IX. Criminal Procedure Reforms

A. Discovery and Disclosure

B. Reliability Hearings

C. Corroboration

D. Jury Instructions

X. Improving Police-Community Trust and Communication

Conclusion

I. Governing through Crime, Governing through Informants

A. The Infiltrator and the Spy: An Old Democracy Problem

B. Criminal Snitching and the Dynamics of Power in Disadvantaged Black Communities: A New Civil Rights Challenge

C. Underenforcement and the Failure to Protect People from Crime

D. The Politics of “Stop Snitching”

II. Implications

Notes

Index

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B

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D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

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N

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P

R

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T

U

V

W

Y

Z

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