Snitch: Informants, Cooperators, and the Corruption of Justice

by Ethan Brown

Our criminal justice system favors defendants who know how to play the "5K game": criminals who are so savvy about the cooperation process that they repeatedly commit serious crimes knowing they can be sent back to the streets if they simply cooperate with prosecutors. In Snitch, investigative reporter Ethan Brown shows through a compelling series of case profiles how the sentencing guidelines for drug-related offenses, along with the 5K1.1 section, have unintentionally created a "cottage industry of cooperators," and led to fabricated evidence. The result is wrongful convictions and appallingly gruesome crimes, including the grisly murder of the Harvey family in Richmond, Virginia and the well-publicized murder of Imette St. Guillen in New York City. This cooperator-coddling criminal justice system has ignited the infamous "Stop Snitching" movement in urban neighborhoods, deplored by everyone from the NAACP to the mayor of Boston for encouraging witness intimidation. But as Snitch shows, the movement is actually a cry against the harsh sentencing guidelines for drug-related crimes, and a call for hustlers to return to "old school" street values, like: do the crime, do the time. Combining deep knowledge of the criminal justice system with frontline true crime reporting, Snitch is a shocking and brutally troubling report about the state of American justice when it's no longer clear who are the good guys and who are the bad.

Genres: True Crime, Crime, Nonfiction, Law

288 pages, Hardcover

First published November 26, 2007

Reviews

[Corinne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book dives into the myriad problems with the criminal justice system - using the present uproar over the "Stop Snitching" campaigns as a backdrop. Brown points to the anti-drug laws of the 90s as the major turning point for rising crime rates. He's never forgiving of criminals who have committed astonishing acts of violence, but he adequately shows how the present laws fail to deter crime and instead foster a culture of mistrust in communities afflicted by drugs, violence, and corrupt police.

Here in Oregon, we're facing an initiative on our November ballot that deals with mandatory minimums. Already being talked about as a "tough on crime" initiative, I encourage every Oregon voter to read even just the introduction to "Snitch" before voting in a destructive policy.

[Darcia Helle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The information here is both fascinating and appalling. Ethan Brown takes us into the world of police cooperators. These aren't like informants, who are people on the streets being paid to provide police with information on criminal activity. Cooperators are the criminals who have been arrested, then given a lighter sentence (or no sentence at all) in return for 'snitching' on someone else. These people have every incentive to lie - and often do. Entire FBI cases have been tried and won on nothing more than the word of cooperators.

Snitch is a mixture of real stories that read like crime fiction and jaw-dropping facts. This is one of those books I think everyone should read.

[Justwin Nesianiono · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who's worse? The criminal turned snitch or the criminal ?

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another great book out of Perseus that I was fortunate enough to copyedit this summer. The author tracked down police, lawyers, informants, and criminals to research how informant laws aren't working and even more--why our nation's drug laws are really stupid. His description of how crack came to be seen as the worst drug ever is eye-opening. That combined with his careful analysis of the corruption involved in various police investigations gives this book unique value. Recommended.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a pretty good read. I found it especially interesting because I work in the field. While I have to question the accuracy of some of the criminal accounts the author relies upon, I can definitely see the need to discuss the issue of compensated criminal informants. I also see a lot of what Brown talks about unfolding at the federal level.

[Darrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

not as fascinating as his former book Queen Reigns Supreme
but worlds more informative
all about sentencing, mandatory minimums, the greased ramp of tough on crime platforms
the effect on impoverished communities, the prison industrial complex etc