NCJ Number
81445
Journal
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Dated: (February 1982) Pages: 25-31
Date Published
1982
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Court decisions bearing upon the nature of criteria for determining police entrapment are discussed, and implications for police behavior are considered.
Abstract
Historically, the two primary criteria for determining police entrapment have been termed the 'subjective' standard, which focuses upon the predisposition of defendants to commit the crimes with which they are charged, and the 'objective' standard, which ignores the defendant's predisposition to commit the crime and determines whether the extent of police involvement in the crime's occurrence is unacceptable. In the last four U.S. Supreme Court cases where the defense of entrapment has been an issue, the 'subjective' standard has been the standard used in determining the Court's decision. However, the Court has left open the possibility that a conviction can be overturned on the basis of denial of due process of law where the police have greatly abused undercover law enforcement activity by dominating the commission of a crime in which the defendant was involved, regardless of the predisposition of the defendant to commit the crime. Whereas, in the 'objective' standard, the predisposition of the defendant is considered irrelevant to determining entrapment, the due process standard weighs the predisposition of the defendant against the extent of police involvement in the crime, ruling for the defendant only in cases where law enforcement's staging of the crime is extensive and offensive. Police officers at the State and local levels should know which view of the entrapment defense has been adopted in their jurisdictions, because this will determine the acceptability of various types of undercover work. Forty-six footnotes are listed.