NCJ Number
127233
Date Published
1990
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This monograph provides guidelines designed to minimize the likelihood of a successful entrapment defense, particularly in narcotics cases.
Abstract
The U.S. Supreme Court has defined entrapment as "the conception and planning of an offense by an officer, and his procurement of its commission by one who would not have perpetrated it except for the trickery, persuasion, or fraud of the officers." This definition emphasizes the defendant's innocent state of mind prior to contact with police officers and the manner by which law enforcement officers may have induced the defendant's commission of a crime. The Court has found entrapment only when police agents have induced innocent persons to violate the law. The three prevailing entrapment standards are the subjective predisposition test, the objective police conduct test, and the combined predisposition/police conduct test. The guidelines presented fall under these prevailing standards. Regarding the subjective predisposition test, evidentiary factors are expressions of willingness to commit the crime charged, absence of reluctance to commit the crime charge, degrees of inducement, defendant's character, prior course of conduct, and criminal activity for profit. Police conduct must be absent plays on sympathy, exploitation of a social relationship, sexual inducements, easy inducements, extreme inducements, repeated badgering, and a "take-back" (an agent provides drugs to a defendant who then sells them to another agent). 48 footnotes