2010 Honorable Mention, Silver Gavel Award, American Bar Association
Uncovers the powerful and problematic practice of snitching to reveal
disturbing truths about how American justice works
Albert Burrell spent thirteen years on death row for a murder he did not
commit. Atlanta police killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston during a
misguided raid on her home. After being released by Chicago prosecutors,
Darryl Moore--drug dealer, hit man, and rapist--returned home to rape an
eleven-year-old girl.
Such tragedies are consequences of snitching--police and prosecutors
offering deals to criminal offenders in exchange for information.
Although it is nearly invisible to the public, criminal snitching has
invaded the American legal system in risky and sometimes shocking ways.
Snitching is the first comprehensive analysis of this powerful and
problematic practice, in which informant deals generate unreliable
evidence, allow criminals to escape punishment, endanger the innocent,
compromise the integrity of police work, and exacerbate tension between
police and poor urban residents. Driven by dozens of real-life stories
and debacles, the book exposes the social destruction that snitching can
cause in high-crime African American neighborhoods, and how using
criminal informants renders our entire penal process more secretive and
less fair. Natapoff also uncovers the far-reaching legal, political, and
cultural significance of snitching: from the war on drugs to hip hop
music, from the FBI's mishandling of its murderous mafia informants to
the new surge in white collar and terrorism informing. She explains how
existing law functions and proposes new reforms. By delving into the
secretive world of criminal informants, Snitching reveals deep and often
disturbing truths about the way American justice really works.
