Entrapment: Absolute Prohibition or its Regularization

Entrapment is one of the common methods of crime detection but we cannot advocate absolute freedom or absolute prohibition of this technique in crime detection because of a conflict between two rights: community rights and individual rights. On the one hand, we need this method for discovering some crimes such as organized crimes. On the other hand, the absolute freedom in the use of this method would impair the rights of individuals. In this paper, we first review the history, concept and fulfillment of the conditions of entrapment. Moreover, we analyze the principles and cases of employing such a method in the study of crime and the defendant. Finally, we analyze the legal position of different countries in relation to entrapment and legal position of Iran in particular.