The Federal Witness Protection Program Revisited and Compared: Reshaping an Old Weapon to Meet New Challenges in the Global Crime Fighting Effort
50 Pages Posted: 1 Oct 2019
Date Written: May 1, 2014
Abstract
This article examines the witness protection program (WPP) in the United States through a comparative lens to determine whether the current iteration of the WPP is sustainable given ever-increasing levels and varieties of criminality on national and international levels. While the United States was the first country to formalize the notion of a government protecting witnesses who provide valuable testimony in the crime fighting effort, a number of other countries and international tribunals have now adopted formal or informal witness protection programs modeled after the US program. This article considers whether the WPP in the United States has kept pace with the changing dynamics of global crime. Or, can the collective international experience with WPPs be synthesized into a set of “best practices” that might help to inform and possibly further reshape the WPP in the United States?
Keywords: Witness Protection Program, WPP, Comparative Law, Criminal Law
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