AA Sponsor and Criminal Activities

What happens when you are disclosing to your sponsor some illegal activity. Do they have a duty to report it?

Reply

This is a difficult one. It mainly rests on two factors:

• The attitude of your sponsor
  
• The type of illegal activity involved
  

Let's deal with the first. All sponsors are different and you need to gauge how yours will react to your revelations. If you do not feel comfortable disclosing information about illegal activities you have been involved in then don't tell them and get a new sponsor one that you can trust with your deepest secrets.

What do you mean by duty bound? Duty to who? If all sponsors felt duty bound to report knowledge of criminal activity then the rooms of AA and NA, in particular, would be empty. This is your call, if you trust your sponsor with such information, go for it. If not find a new sponsor or share this with someone you know will keep your confidence.

As for the second factor. There are illegal activities and there are illegal activities. We all expect, for example, NA members to have been involved in buying illegal drugs, maybe selling drugs, stealing to maintain their habit and so on. However, there are some illegal activities that are beyond the pale for a lot of people, and these are better not shared, regardless of how well you know/trust the person as their reaction cannot possibly be predicted when it comes to such illegal activities.

In short, then, use your own judgement, sound out your sponsor first as to his/her attitude toward certain illegal activities/practices, if unsure of his/her reaction then err on the side of caution and keep quiet, or look for an alternative person with who to exorcise your demons.