What is entrapment in legal terms?

Entrapment in legal terms refers specifically to a defense mechanism used by a defendant who claims that law enforcement officers induced or tempted them into committing a crime that they would not have otherwise committed. This concept is based on the idea that the government's actions caused the defendant to break the law, thus challenging the fairness and integrity of the criminal justice system.

The purpose of the entrapment defense is to protect individuals from being convicted for crimes they were not predisposed to commit, thereby addressing the ethical implications of law enforcement tactics. In successful entrapment cases, the focus is often on the defendant's state of mind and whether they were predisposed to commit the crime without government intervention.

Other options describe concepts associated with the judicial process, but they do not encapsulate the meaning of entrapment. For instance, strategies used by judges to impose sentences or legal reasoning for sentencing decisions pertain to the sentencing phase of trials rather than the defense of an individual's actions. Similarly, negotiation between prosecutors and defense attorneys typically relates to plea bargaining rather than to the entrapment defense specifically.