Entrapment is usually a form of defense to criminal charges. It occurs as a result of the interaction between the police and the defendant during the alleged crime. In essence, criminal entrapment refers to a scenario that arises when police officers use coercion and other tactics to compel someone to commit a crime (Levanon, 2016) . The government agents offer these people an opportunity to commit a crime. According to judges, people are expected to resist this temptation to violate the law (Sleep, 2018) . However, in instances where law enforcement officers resort to objectionable behavior such as harassment, threats, flattery, or fraud to induce defendants to commit crimes, an entrapment defense may arise. For instance, James is charged with selling illegal drugs to an undercover police officer. If, in his defense, James convinces the court that he had been overwhelmed by repeated entreaties and lies from the police officer that informed his decision to sell him the drugs, then he may receive a not guilty verdict.
On the other hand, the police may use lies to compel a crime perpetrator to admit to his actions. When these lies are motivated to de-escalate a crisis at hand or apprehend a criminal, they are deemed legitimate (Hritz, 2018) . Though some people deem police lying as repulsive behavior, its intention is usually justified in the end. For instance, police who lie to a hostage-taker about a deal with the prosecuting attorney to lessen the criminal's charges in an attempt to compel him to give up is justified legally to do so. He only lied to try and contain the matter at hand. However, there are limitations to such lies. Extrinsic lies are not acceptable in court. These are lies that influence a person’s ability to make a rational choice in relation to confessing to a crime.
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References
Hritz, A. C. (2018). Voluntariness with a vengeance: The coerciveness of police lies in interrogations. https://doi.org/10.31228/osf.io/ew6tm
Levanon, L. (2016). The law of police entrapment: Critical evaluation and policy analysis. Criminal Law Forum , 27 (1), 35-73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10609-015-9271-2
Sleep, L. (2018). Entrapment and institutional collusion: Domestic violence police reports and the ‘couple rule’ in Social Security law. Alternative Law Journal , 44 (1), 17-22. https://doi.org/10.1177/1037969x18796900
