NCJ Number
191669
Editor(s)
Roger Billingsley,
Teresa Nemitz,
Philip Bean
Date Published
2001
Length
189 pages
Annotation
This book is about the professional informer who provides information to the police in return for rewards. It is also about those informers who were offenders, and who provided the police with information about others.
Abstract
About one-third of all crimes solved by police involve the use of informers; policing would be impossible without informers. This book is about the professional informer, who provides information to the police in return for reward--whether money, a light sentence, or some other benefit. It is only occasionally that so-called “public-spirited offenders" give information because it is their duty. In practice, however, the difference between them is less clear, and there is much overlap, for the professional can be public-spirited and vice versa. Chapter 1, by Philip Bean and Roger Billingsley, concentrates on the effectiveness of informers in reducing crime, examining the use of informers in drug markets. The authors show that procedures adopted by the police, sometimes as a response to Government demands, may make matters worse. Chapter 2, by Roy Clark, discusses the link between drugs and police corruption. Clark argues that informers pose the greatest threat to police integrity. Chapter 3, Tom Williamson and Peter Bagshaw address some of the ethical issues surrounding the use of informers by law enforcement agencies. They identify two types of corruption, so called “process” corruption and “noble cause” corruption. The former occurs where police falsify and violate procedures to secure a conviction, believing the offender is guilty anyway; the latter occurs where convictions are falsely secured for some supposedly higher cause. In Chapter 4, Nigel South discusses accountability in the use of informers. He compares police informers with security service informers. In Chapter 5, Roger Billingsley examines the motives of informers, using data from his own research. In Chapter 6, Teresa Nemitz showes that fewer women become informers and proportionately fewer women police officers become handlers. In Chapter 7, Paul Iganski and Carole Ballardie address the use of juvenile offenders and the ethical and practical problems they create. In Chapter 8, Steven Greer discusses the role of the "supergrass." Supergrass are those professional criminals who decide to give information against other criminals, often their associates, hoping to secure a reduced sentence for themselves. Chapter 9, by Bill Griffiths and Alan Murphy, addresses Crimestoppers, a community informer system appealing to those who seek anonymity yet want to provide the police with information. In Chapter 10, Philip Bean looks at witness protection schemes. This volume concentrates on ethical questions rather than practical aspects, and on the British experience. Notes, references, and index