but for the actions of law enforcement, would this person ever have committed the crime?
If that was the requirement for entrapment, most pedo stings would fail. As would most gun busts, and "extremists" like KKK or Nazi takedowns. Most crimes aren't planned, they are of opportunity. If the cops never presented these opportunities, they likely wouldn't have ever acted.
Even under the idea of taking them down before a real opportunity comes and hurts somebody, most of the scenarios in which the busts happen are so unlikely that I'd argue the person wasn't a real threat to anyone. Its pretty well known how often a lot of these busts require wearing them down until they finally cross the line, Randy Weaver being a famous example.
So, entrapment has always been a theory of a line the law can't cross, but who is gonna defend pedos or Nazis by getting them off on that technicality? Its only really enforced in absurdly egregious cases.
If that was the requirement for entrapment, most pedo stings would fail. As would most gun busts, and "extremists" like KKK or Nazi takedowns. Most crimes aren't planned, they are of opportunity. If the cops never presented these opportunities, they likely wouldn't have ever acted.
Even under the idea of taking them down before a real opportunity comes and hurts somebody, most of the scenarios in which the busts happen are so unlikely that I'd argue the person wasn't a real threat to anyone. Its pretty well known how often a lot of these busts require wearing them down until they finally cross the line, Randy Weaver being a famous example.
So, entrapment has always been a theory of a line the law can't cross, but who is gonna defend pedos or Nazis by getting them off on that technicality? Its only really enforced in absurdly egregious cases.
This is some Minority Report bullshit.