Equity Against Truth - Value Choices in Deceptive Investigations (Police Ethics - Hard Choices in Law Enforcement, P 117-132, 1985, by William C Heffernan and Timothy Stroup, eds. - See NCJ-100351)

• NCJ Number: 100357
• Author(s): L W Sherman
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; John Jay Press
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: For microfiche, see NCJ-100351.

Annotation

Although deception in criminal investigations is intrusive and morally repugnant, it is necessary to make the white-collar criminal as vulnerable to conviction as the street criminal. Random sampling is the only fair targeting method for undercover investigations.

Abstract

Failure to conduct undercover investigations makes crimes such as bribery of public officials, tax evasion, consensual crimes, and financial frauds relatively immune to exposure compared to over street crimes. This would create inequities in law enforcement. In selecting targets for undercover investigations, the random sampling of population or occupational groups with above average probability of committing a particular crime should be used. The current method of relying on tips and leads unfairly implicates the innocent and may overlook some of the most serious criminals. Constitutionally protected categories, such as race and religion, however, should be explicitly excluded from criteria for defining targeted population qroups. 13 notes.