Reaction Paper: Persons That Are Arrested For Drug Law Violations (Reaction Paper Sample)

Name Task Lecturer Date 1 Introduction Informants are usually vital component when it comes to matters of investigation and prosecution of crimes such as drug trafficking and narcotic users. The informants can either provide important information to police or assist the authorities in enforcing the law. Law enforcers and detectives in most cases use law violators to obtain important information to arrest and prosecute the criminals. In most cases, these informants who were initially law breakers, end up being injured or killed by the criminals. Thesis statement Persons arrested for drug law violations who are pressured by detectives to become confidential informants and end up wounded or murdered by dealers 2 Body * History of informants Informants have been in existence from Roman era. During this time, informants who were private citizens would penetrate into organizations that were dissident and prosecuted the criminal elements, Beck (2002). In English Common Law, citizen played two parts when it came to enforcement of the law. The first part was approver and the second part informer. Civilians who took part of approver admitted crimes they did and they gave evidence against the other partners. The approvers were given pardon. Those who played the role of informer, reported minor violators of law and in exchange were given part of fine paid by offenders. Zimmerman, (1994) During this time, the informers suffered a common fate, death. (ii) Classes of informants Informants can be categorized into two main groups; * Criminals who are pressurized to become informants by law enforcers * Civilians who freely provide information to law enforcers (iii) Interaction between detectives and informants The relationship between informants, especially the coerced ones, and state agents should be looked to ...