Supergrasses

In the first half of the 1980s a series of high-profile and deeply controversial trials, some larger than any criminal proceedings hitherto seen in Ireland or the UK, took place in Northern Ireland on the evidence of `supergrasses' prepared to betray large numbers of their alleged accomplices in return for various rewards. This major scholarly study, which for the first time discusses supergrass trials in a broad criminological, historical, legal, and comparative context, will make a timely and enduring contribution to debates about security policy and anti-terrorist law enforcement in Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.