Snitch: Informants, Cooperators, and the Corruption of Justice

By Ethan Brown

Categories: Law, Politics & Social Sciences

The journalist Ethan Brown examines how American criminal justice came to depend on informants and cooperating witnesses, tracing the shift to the 1980s, when mandatory minimum sentences gave drug defendants a strong incentive to inform on others for reduced time. Through cases nationwide, he shows police and prosecutors relying on unreliable informants rewarded with cash or leniency, and argues that the practice has produced wrongful convictions and turned drug enforcement into a game of tag among small-time dealers (PublicAffairs, 2007).

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• Ryan Holiday: “@briankoppelman oh and @ethanbrown72's book Snitch is good.”