informant
Let an agent explain informants, relay the law-enforcement, intelligence and research senses and ethical issues from criminology, history and social science sources with historical cases attributed, describe the named terms as instances, and distinguish informants from witnesses, whistleblowers, spies and undercover officers.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify
Researched by: Claude
Purpose and description
Let an agent explain informants, relay the law-enforcement, intelligence and research senses and ethical issues from criminology, history and social science sources with historical cases attributed, describe the named terms as instances, and distinguish informants from witnesses, whistleblowers, spies and undercover officers.
A person who secretly gives information about others to an authority, especially police or intelligence services, ranging from a witness or tipster to a paid or coerced informer; the registry aliases name terms from specific contexts such as the British supergrass, the East German Stasi informer or inoffizieller Mitarbeiter, the West German V-Mann and Gestapo agents, which are historical and political instances often carrying strong connotations. Informant is also a neutral term in research and linguistics for a person who provides information or language data. The role raises ethical and legal issues of coercion, betrayal, surveillance and protection, presented with attribution.
What it is for: A person who provides information to an authority or researcher.
It can be explain the senses; relay ethical and legal issues with attribution; describe named terms as instances; distinguish related roles.
Distinguishing features
Provides information
Often covert
Law, intelligence and research senses
Ethical issues
What it looks like
Not a single appearance; a role defined by providing information covertly.
Physical character
law-enforcement sense: police informer note
research sense: provider of information or language data note
registry parent: source of information note
How it is recognised
A person who secretly informs an authority
Supergrass, Stasi collaborator, informer collaborator, cooperative patriot, V-Mann, Gestapo agent
Witnesses testify openly; whistleblowers expose wrongdoing; spies gather intelligence for a state; undercover officers are agents themselves
Related models
is a kind of - in registry terms
is contrasted with -
is contrasted with -
is contrasted with -
In practice
Families and kinds
police informers
intelligence informers
research informants
coerced informers
Standards and regulation
Laws on informant handling and disclosure
Research ethics for human informants
Failure modes and hazards
Glorifying or condemning without attribution
Coercion and safety risks to informers
Historical regimes framing
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Also registered as vr.tr.informant
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions.
Understand What an informant is.
Attribution.
Definition
Definition.
Definition
Definition.
- What is an informant, and how does it differ from witnesses, whistleblowers, spies and undercover officers? definition
- Is the question about the law-enforcement, intelligence or research sense? boundary
Terms
Named terms.
Terms
Terms.
- What do supergrass, Stasi informer, V-Mann and Gestapo agent mean as historical instances? definition
- Which entry fits the specific term? action
Senses Senses.
Sources.
Law enforcement
Police informers.
Law enforcement
Law enforcement.
- How are police informers used and handled? provenance
- Which references are standard? provenance
Research
Research informants.
Research
Research.
- How is informant used neutrally in research and linguistics? provenance
- Which sources are cited? provenance
History Historical cases.
Attribution.
Stasi
Stasi informers.
Stasi
Stasi.
- How did the Stasi use unofficial collaborators, as historians document? provenance
- Is the presentation neutral and attributed? boundary
Supergrass
Supergrass.
Supergrass
Supergrass.
- What is a supergrass in British criminal justice? provenance
- Is the presentation neutral and attributed? boundary
Context Ethics.
Attribution.
Ethics
Ethical issues.
Ethics
Ethics.
- What ethical and legal issues surround informants, with positions attributed? provenance
- Is the presentation neutral and attributed? boundary
Protection
Informer protection.
Protection
Protection.
- How are informers protected and their handling regulated? provenance
- Which entry fits witness protection? action
What the second pass must settle
- The registry historical-regime aliases should be treated as instances
- Should the research sense be a separate entry?
- How should informant-handling ethics be linked?