Book Review: Hasnas, J. (2006). Trapped: When Acting Ethically is Against the Law. Washington, DC: Cato Institute. 119 pp

• DOI: 10.1177/0734016808325631
• Date: 01 June 2009
• Published date: 01 June 2009
• Subject Matter: Articles

280 Criminal Justice Review

exclusionary rule was “a pattern of pervasive police perjury intended to avoid the require-

ments of the Fourth Amendment” (p. 138). The most explosive finding was the dishonesty

on many levels. Orfield explains the “systematic fabrication” of reports and affidavits for

obtaining search warrants. The more high profile the case, the more judges will allow per-

jury to keep evidence from being thrown out of a trial. The study found no evidence that

the perjury would end.

Mapp sparked a criminal procedure revolution. In chapter 7, Long chronicles the cases

of the Warren Court as the justices try to clarify the role of the Bill of Rights in criminal

procedure. “All revolutions attract their share of critics” (p. 150). Long successfully con-

nects the Mapp decision to the public fear of a rising crime rate and the political shift to

using crime as an actual policy issue in the 1964 presidential race.

The political fight unfolds in chapter 8, as the Senate formed committees and proposed

bills to try to reverse Mapp and other Warren Court decisions. In addition, Long reveals

how presidential power is exerted through Supreme Court appointments. The appointment

of Justice Warren E. Burger was a direct challenge to the Warren Court. The text documents

how the Burger Court tried to undermine the exclusionary rule by increasing the amount of

exceptions to the rule. Later, the Rehnquist Court continued to contest the rulings.

Long closes by explaining how the later decisions by both the Burger Court and the

Rehnquist Court further challenged Mapp and continued to retract the Fourth Amendment

rights established by the Warren Court. Consequently, many state supreme courts have

attempted to repair the damage. The author justifies the importance of the protections pro-

vided by the Fourth Amendment. I would recommend this book to law students in criminal

procedure courses and students in criminal justice programs.

Teresa I. Francis

Central Washington University

Hasnas, J. (2006). Trapped: When Acting Ethically is Against the Law. Washington, DC:

Cato Institute. 119 pp.

DOI: 10.1177/0734016808325631

John Hasnas is an associate professor of business at Georgetown University and a Cato

Institute senior fellow. The stated aim of the book is to examine how a variety of federal

mechanisms for combating white-collar crime place corporate managers in a position of

choosing between ethical and legal behavior. Moreover, the author argues that governmen-

tal overreach in the prosecution of white-collar crimes has undermined the liberal ideals

that are traditionally a part of the criminal law.

The first chapter takes advantage of the conceptual confusion that surrounds the meaning

of the term white-collar crime to provide an overly restrictive notion of it. Hasnas’ definition

limits it “exclusively to behavior that is the object of federal efforts to ensure honest dealing

and regulatory compliance in business” (p. 11). Hasnas maintains that this conception dis-

tinguishes it from the “state criminal law, which is directed against actions that either