NCJ Number
108686
Journal
Journal of Social Issues Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Dated: (1987) Pages: 57-59
Date Published
1987
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article examines the ethics of entrapment in response to a 1987 article by Braithwaite et al that suggests that covert facilitation is a necessary proactive approach to white-collar crime, especially that perpetrated by the powerful.
Abstract
In the reviewed article, Braithwaite et al argue that encouraging citizens to commit crimes represents a justifiable strategy for detecting low visibility white-collar crime and regulatory violations. While the present author agrees that strategies that provide the opportunity for committing crime may be necessary in some cases, providing opportunity is quite different from inviting or encouraging criminal acts. For instance, to send a black couple to a realtor to determine if they receive equal, nondiscriminatory treatment is ethically and morally different from urging the commission of a criminal act. While Braithwaite et al propose probable cause as a safeguard against abuses in covert facilitation, they argue that this safeguard is unnecessary in the case of white-collar crimes involving corporations. However, these arguments are based on the false premise that probable cause is grounded in the right to privacy and the irrelevant premise that corporations have no right to privacy. 1 reference.