Author Question: What is an informant? Discuss role conflict in regard to using juveniles as informants. Do you agree ... (Read 109 times)

daltonest1984 · **on:** Aug 13, 2018

What is an informant? Discuss role conflict in regard to using juveniles as informants. Do you agree or disagree with the practice? Explain.

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Advocates of community policing regard the approach as useful in juvenile justice for a number of reasons. Name the reasons indicated by the authors. Explain your view on community policing and delinquency.

What will be an ideal response?

SAUXC · **Reply #1 on:** Aug 13, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Informants are individuals who have access to criminal networks and who, under conditions of anonymity, provide information to authorities in exchange for money or special treatment.
Police rely on informants, both adult and juvenile, to obtain evidence to make arrests in serious cases that the police may otherwise not be able to solve, such as gun and drug trafficking.
Juvenile informants are also used in less serious cases where age is important to the crimefor example, when retailers sell cigarettes or alcohol to minors.
Police must balance the need to obtain evidence and the vulnerabilities of (and extra safeguards that are needed for) juveniles in these cases.
As criminologist Mary Dodge notes, there is a need for a higher degree of scrutiny in the use of juvenile police informants and this practice should not be warranted in all circumstances.
Student views will vary.

Answer to Question 2

Direct engagement with a community gives police more immediate information about problems unique to a neighborhood and better insight into their solutions.
Freeing officers from the emergency response system permits them to engage more directly in proactive crime prevention.
Making police operations more visible increases police accountability to the public.
Decentralizing operations allows officers to develop greater familiarity with the needs of various constituencies in the community and to adapt procedures to accommodate those needs.
Encouraging officers to view citizens as partners improves relations between police and the public.
Moving decision making to patrol officers places more authority in the hands of the people who best know the community's problems and expectations.
Student views will vary.