What is entrapment?
In order to catch sex offenders, Phoenix police may sometime utilize tactics that may be seen as entrapment, meaning that the police persuaded the defendant to commit a crime they did not intend to commit, or would not have committed had the police not suggested it. This includes such undercover police acts as dressing up as prostitutes to catch offenders, and pretending to be underage children seeking sexual contact on the internet. Entrapment is a hard defense to use and is an affirmative defense – meaning it must be proved by the Defendant.
“Entrapment” is a defense raised in criminal cases when the police induce the accused to commit a crime that he or she otherwise would not commit. A valid entrapment defense has two components: • governmental inducement to commit the offense; and • absence of the defendant’s predisposition to commit the crime The defendant has the initial burden of showing that the state induced him or her to commit the crime. Once the defendant has done that, then the government must overcome the entrapment claim by proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was predisposed to commit the crime regardless of the government’s action.
