Becoming an Informant

Abstract

Though widely acknowledged as vital to law enforcement, social scientists have largely ignored the practice of confidential informing. The extant literature on the topic is primarily comprised of experientially based practical guides to informant management and a handful of field studies drawing information from informants in the study of other undercover practices. This study features data obtained from in‐depth interviews with eighty‐four former informants drawn from five southern states identified through a purposive‐snowball sampling strategy. Informant accounts suggest that the practice of confidential informing is an institutionalized component of a general narcotics enforcement pattern characterized by duplicity and social control irony. Confidential informant work is observed as a moral career entailing deviant identity maintenance through neutralizations and insider perspective. Narratives confirmed a motivational typology accounting for role assumption and informant–agent dynamics and orient discussion around practice and research implications.

Keywords:

• confidential informing
• informant
• neutralization
• moral career

Acknowledgments

This research was supported, in part, by the Bureau of Justice Assistance 1998 JAG Program and the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, Office of Justice Programs. Points of view are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of these agencies. Thanks to Heith Copes, Holly Miller, and anonymous reviewers for constructive comments.