It survives in the law of England and Wales and Northern Ireland only in the term misprision of treason.
By the common law of England, it was the duty of every liege subject (vassal) to inform the king's justices and other officers of the law of all treasons and felonies of which the informant had knowledge, and to bring the offender to justice by arrest (see Sheriffs Act 1887, s. 8).
[5] Positive misprision is the doing of something which ought not to be done; or the commission of a serious offence falling short of treason or felony, in other words of a misdemeanour of a public character (e.g. maladministration of high officials, contempt of the sovereign or magistrates).
To endeavour to dissuade a witness from giving evidence, to disclose an examination before the privy council, or to advise a prisoner to stand mute, used to be described as misprisions (Hawk.
[7] Section 19 of the same Act creates an offence of failure to disclose a belief or suspicion that a person has committed an offence under sections 15 to 18 of that Act if that belief or suspicion arises from information acquired in the course of employment or professional work.
In England and Wales, there is no longer a positive obligation on a person who is aware of an offence having been committed to report it.
[10] If one knows that one is a target of a Federal investigation, it is illegal under the Sarbanes–Oxley Act to erase one's browser history intentionally.
Khairullozhan Matanov was prosecuted for erasing computer records about his friends, Dhzokar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev; he pleaded guilty to a lesser included offense in 2015.
[citation needed] In some jurisdictions, such as New York and the military justice system, misprision also refers to the "intent to cause a false impression", for example, for the sale of fake drugs, such as oregano instead of marijuana.