NCJ Number
108692
Journal
Journal of Social Issues Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Dated: (1987) Pages: 101-122
Date Published
1987
Length
22 pages
Annotation
In this article, Braithwaite et al respond to points raised in seven commentaries on their 1987 article on the use of police covert facilitation as a strategy for combatting white-collar and corporate crime and rectifying the structural injustice between tough criminal enforcement against blue-collar criminals and the relative immunity of more powerful and elite offenders.
Abstract
In defense of this thesis, it is argued that standards of probable cause, required judicial approval, tests of seriousness, reasonable prospect of conviction, and the likely failure of less intrusive strategies should be sufficient justification and should provide protection against abuses. Additional responses to critiques focus on the use of 'encouragement of crime' in the definition of covert facilitation, the validity of the concept of categorical probable cause against unknown individuals, the elimination of probable cause as a standard for covert facilitation in combatting corporate crime, the psychology of temptation, and the dangers inherent in producing explicit and precise guidelines for the conduct of covert facilitation. 26 references.