Introduction to the Symposium: The Panorama of Informers Up Close

Informers are generally reviled. After all, ‘snitches get stitches.’ Informers who report to repressive regimes are particularly disdained. While informers may themselves be victims enlisted by the state, and hence are victimized, their actions cause other individuals to suffer significant harm. Informers, then, become victimizers. Their hands may be bloodstained; clawed and curdled; supple but shameful. Yet, little is known about exactly why ordinary people end up informing on — at times betraying — others to state authorities. Moreover, little in the way of reflection (as opposed to reaction) has been given to what law should do about informers, afterwards, if anything.