Retribution for Rats: Cooperation, Punishment, and Atonement

Authors

Michael A. Simons, St. John's University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Vanderbilt Law Review

Publication Date

2003

Volume

Vol. 56, No. 1

First Page

1

Abstract

(Excerpt)

To mobsters, he is a "rat"; to drug dealers, a "snitch." To school children, he is a "tattletale"; to corporate executives, a "whistleblower." To cops, he is an "informant"; to prosecutors, a "cooperator." By whatever name he is known, the person who betrays his associates to the authorities is almost universally reviled. In movies, on television, in literature, the cooperator embodies all that society holds in contempt: he is disloyal, deceitful, greedy, selfish, and weak.

The cooperator, though, has long been a mainstay of our criminal justice system. For centuries, criminal defendants have received leniency in return for testimony incriminating accomplices and associates. Cooperation has flourished because the participants in the process (primarily prosecutors and cooperators) reap tremendous benefits. Prosecutors want what only cooperators can offer: inside information about criminal organizations. And cooperators want what only prosecutors can offer: leniency, or at least a recommendation for leniency.

Comments

Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol56/iss1/1/