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Caught red-handed, but not guilty

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Date Issued:
2009
Summary:
There is a debate among scholars regarding how courts should judge defendants caught in government decoy and sting operations. As a retributivist, I believe we should only punish those who are culpable. Following this assumption, I argue that courts should punish entrapped people if they are culpable and that the subjective test, which holds that a defendant is culpable if he was predisposed to commit the crime, should be the standard by which courts judge defendants who claim entrapment. The objective test, which focuses on the propriety of the government conduct, fails to accurately assess culpability because, under this test, the guilt of the defendant depends largely on what the average person would have done under the same circumstances. I also propose that if government conduct reached the level of outrageous, defendants found to be predisposed may claim that the government violated their right to due process.
Title: Caught red-handed, but not guilty: the entrapment defense and culpability.
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Name(s): Mockler, Katherine L.
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Thesis
Issuance: multipart monograph
Date Issued: 2009
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Physical Form: electronic
electronic resource
Extent: vi, 81 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.
Language(s): English
Summary: There is a debate among scholars regarding how courts should judge defendants caught in government decoy and sting operations. As a retributivist, I believe we should only punish those who are culpable. Following this assumption, I argue that courts should punish entrapped people if they are culpable and that the subjective test, which holds that a defendant is culpable if he was predisposed to commit the crime, should be the standard by which courts judge defendants who claim entrapment. The objective test, which focuses on the propriety of the government conduct, fails to accurately assess culpability because, under this test, the guilt of the defendant depends largely on what the average person would have done under the same circumstances. I also propose that if government conduct reached the level of outrageous, defendants found to be predisposed may claim that the government violated their right to due process.
Identifier: 461327281 (oclc), 209995 (digitool), FADT209995 (IID), fau:1369 (fedora)
Note(s): by Katherine L. Mockler.
Thesis (B.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, Honors College, 2009.
Bibliography: leaves 79-81.
Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subject(s): Undercover operations -- United States
Government investigations -- United States
Criminal justice, Administration of -- United States
Entrapment (Criminal law) -- United States
Held by: FBoU FAUER
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/209995
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Host Institution: FAU

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