What usually motivates informants?
The basic types of motives haven’t changed since first proposed in 1960 by Malachi L. Harney & John C. Cross in “The Informer in Law Enforcement”: • Fear – people who feel threatened by the law. • Revenge – people, like ex-wives, ex-girlfriends, ex-employers, ex-associates, or ex-customers who want to get even. • Perversity – people who are cop wannabes or think they’re James Bond and/or hope to one day expose corruption. • Ego – people who need to feel they are smart “big shots” and/or outwitting those they see as inferiors. • Money – people who, like mercenaries, will do whatever it takes if the money is right. • Repentance – people who want to leave the world of crime behind them and/or citizens fed up with crime. In a number of interviews, Brandon Darby has stated his reasons for informing as “a moral choice” to “prevent violence”, and that he “wasn’t making my choices for financial reasons or to avoid some sort of prosecution.” However, in the first line of his open letter admitti
