Entrapment is when someone in authority, like a police officer, tricks or pressures a person into committing a crime they wouldn't have committed otherwise. The key word here is otherwise: entrapment happens when law enforcement creates the crime rather than just catching someone who was already planning to break the law.

Imagine a police officer repeatedly begging someone to buy illegal fireworks, even after that person says no several times, until they finally give in. That could be entrapment because the officer pushed someone into doing something they had refused to do. But if an undercover officer simply offers to sell stolen bikes and someone eagerly agrees, that's not entrapment. The person was already willing to buy stolen property.

The concept matters because our legal system tries to catch actual criminals, not manufacture new ones. Law enforcement can set traps (like leaving a fake wallet on the sidewalk to catch thieves), but they can't pressure people into becoming criminals. Courts have to decide: Did this person have criminal intent already, or did authorities plant that idea and push them into it?

The word sometimes gets misused. If your friend dares you to take an extra cookie and you get caught, that's not entrapment. Your friend isn't a government authority, and you chose to take the cookie. Real entrapment involves government pressure overcoming someone's reluctance to break the law.