The United States Federal Witness Protection Program, also known as WITSEC, began in the 1960s following John F. Kennedy’s campaign against organized crime. Kennedy’s approach to policing organized crime was based on taking down whole organizations using informants. The program became formalized in 1970 as part of the Organized Crime Control Act and today is run by the US Marshals services. As of 2020, the program had protected over 19,000 witnesses and family members.

When an individual enters the program, they cease to exist under their old names. For that reason, such witnesses are placed in vulnerable positions, allowing government officials to prioritize the case over their wellbeing. Because most of the witnesses have criminal records, there has also been a high rate of perjury. That said, the Witness Protection Program boasts a long list of indictments and a better recidivism rate than prisons.

As Scottoline points out in What Happened to the Bennetts, the Bennett family are atypical candidates. Because they are law-abiding, the Bennetts make for more trustworthy witnesses. They are also involved in their community and cared for by friends and family to greater extents than most individuals with criminal records. This latter point becomes more complicated by the rise of social media, which plays out in the novel when Lucinda’s friends and online amateur detectives begin their investigations.