Abstract
When people think of “entrapment” generally what comes to mind is an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute or a drug dealer in order to catch criminals. The fact of the matter is that claims of entrapment take on many forms, the above being some of them. The police sting operations that lead to the defense of entrapment can also be complicated and intricate schemes involving obscene amounts of money, or a bribe with the undertone of a threat. While the former types of operations can be beneficial in helping to stop so-called “victimless” crimes (“Entrapment: From Sorrells,”1993), the latter may be an example of law enforcement officials overstepping their boundaries.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Associated Press. (2002, November 4). ‘Stupid’ author arrested in Internet sex case. Lawrence Journal-World, p. 4.
Borgida, E., & Park, R. (1988). The entrapment defense: Juror comprehension and decision making. Law and Human Behavior, 12, 19–40.
Brill, S. (1989). Trial by jury. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Butler, K. A., & Wrightsman, L. S. (2002, March). Attitudes toward law enforcement and mock jurors’ reactions to an entrapment defense. Paper presented at the meetings of the American Psychology-Law Society, Austin, TX.
DeGarmo, E. L. (2003). A factor analysis of attitudes toward entrapment. Honors Thesis, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.
Edkins, V. A. (2003). The defense of entrapment: The psychology behind juries’ decisions. Unpublished Masters Thesis, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.
Entrapment: From Sorrells to Jacobson—The development continues. (1993). Ohio Northern University Law Review, 20, Rev. 293.
Gershman, B. L. (1982). Abscam, the judiciary, and the ethics of entrapment. Yale Law Journal, 91, 1565–1591.
Hampton v. United States, 425 U. S. 484 (1976).
Jacobson v. United States, 503 U. S. 540 (1992).
Kassin, S. M. (1985, August). Juries and the doctrine of entrapment. Paper presented at the meetings of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, CA.
Kassin, S. M., Sr Wrightsman, L. S. (1985). Confession evidence. In S. M. Kassin & L. S. Wrightsman (Eds.), The psychology of evidence and trial procedure (pp. 67–94). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Katz, L. (1987). Bad acts and guilty minds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lewis, E. W. (1997). A social psychological investigation of legal entrapment. Dissertation Abstracts International, Section B: The sciences and engineering,58 (1-B), 458.
Lindsey, R. (1984, August 17). Jurors cite entrapment and failure to prove case. New York Times, pp. A1, B6.
Marcus, P. (1989). The entrapment defense. Charlottesville, VA: Michie.
Margolick, D. (1984, August 17). A case for DeLorean. New York Times, p. B6.
Marx, G. T. (1988). Undercover: Police surveillance in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Mayfield, M. (1984, August 17). Government stung by verdict. USA Today, p. 3A.
Morier, D., Borgida, E., & Park, R. C. (1996). Improving juror comprehension of judicial instructions on the entrapment defense. Journal of Applied Social Psychology,26, 1838–1866.
O’Neill, K. H. (1985). Entrapment, DeLorean, and the undercover operation: A constitutional connection. John Marshall Law Review, 18, 365–405.
Park, R. C. (1976). The entrapment controversy. Minnesota Law Review, 60, 163–274.
Puccio, T. P. (1995). In the name of the law: Confessions of a trial lawyer. New York: Norton.
Ross, L. (1977). The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 10, pp. 174–221). New York: Academic Press.
Sherman v. United States, 356 U. S. 369 (1958).
Slobogin, C. (1998). Criminal procedure: Regulation of police investigation: Legal,historical, empirical and comparative materials (2nd ed.). Charlottesville, VA: Lexis Legal Publishing.
Sorrells v. United States, 287 U. S. 435 (1932).
Starr, M. (1984, August 27). DeLorean: Not guilty. Newsweek, pp. 22, 24.
United States v. Russell, 411 U. S. 423 (1973).
Wrightsman, L.S., Nietzel, M., & Fortune, W.H. (1994). Psychology and the legal system (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Edkins, V.A., Wrightsman, L.S. (2004). The Psychology of Entrapment. In: Lassiter, G.D. (eds) Interrogations, Confessions, and Entrapment. Perspectives in Law & Psychology, vol 20. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-38598-3_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-38598-3_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-33151-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-38598-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive