Entrapment

Entrapment (a term of jurisprudence) refers to a procedural defense; via which, a defendant may argue that they should not be held criminally liable for actionss which broke the law, because they were induced (or entrapped) by the police to commit said acts. For the defense to be successful, the defendant must demonstrate that the police induced an otherwise unwilling person to commit a crime. However, when a person is predisposed to commit a crime, offering opportunities to commit the crime is not entrapment.

Entrapment is an issue that must be considered in designing sting operations.

John De Lorean was arrested in 1982 for selling cocaine to undercover police; in court, De Lorean argued that the police had asked him to sell them the cocaine (and threatened him as a form of coercion); he was found "not guilty". De Lorean's attorney stated in Time (March 19, 1984), "This [was] a fictitious crime. Without the Government, there would be no crime."

The defense of entrapment was unsuccessful in the Abscam operation in which which several Congressmen were convicted of bribery.

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Entrapment is also the name of a 1999 movie starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

''WARNING: Wikipedia contains spoilers

Zeta-Jones works for an insurance agency, attempting to capture Connery (an art thief) by making him believe that she is a thief herself, thus entrapping him.