Dateline NBC has a hit on their hands. "To Catch a Predator" captures the attention of Americans for a variety of reasons. One, its exciting and controversial, pitting the potential offenders again law enforcement and a handsome host. Two, its cathartic, allowing frantic mothers and pissed off fathers to wring their hands as the pervert gets busted. And three, it seems to be a solution to a pervasive problem.
The problem is, there is no significant data to indicate that this is pervasive, entrapment is a shallow victory, and the host is sort of boring.
This form of "policing," as I see it, is flat out wrong. Are these guys perverts? Maybe. Are they sexual predators? Possibly. But have they done anything wrong? In my opinion, no.
Internet chat rooms are full of people trying to be someone else. Profiles are fake, screen names are doctored to sound more alluring, and ages are always lied about. These guys may have a sick fetish, but I am unsure of how you can judge "intent" by someone showing up at a door. Sure, he made the trip, sure he asked their age, sure they told him something young, but in my opinion, this guy doesn't truly know his "intent" until he actually sees who he is meeting.
The group that lures the perp to the house is called "Perverted Justice" and claims that they always let the potential mark start the conversion and be the first one to mention sex. This, according to the group, absolves them of any blame in guiding the said mark. But do they not offer the perp an alluring incentive to take a chance? Do they not offer the perp a chance perhaps never available to him before? Subtly, do they not encourage him to take that chance?
This to me is policing peoples perversions, not their actions. This show props itself up on dubious data, inflated risk, and sob stories to make it seem legitimate, then create an unsympathetic villain in the pervert who rarely warrants defense. Furthermore, they work with the police to actually have these people arrested! This unholy alliance between a private advocacy group, a television show, and the police force represents a scary precedent in a nation that is supposed to uphold freedom, even perverted freedom.
BqTM
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1 comment:
Thank you. I have Libertarian sympathies, and was always bothered by these shows. It's a very frustrating situation to be in: not feeling like a cheerleader of "to catch a predator and" it's ilk. I even feel like the entrappers-especially the dykey one that tries to sound like a preteen boy over the phone when she tricks these poor saps and pretty much begs them to come to that house-are the real perverts. There is definitely an assumption that if you don't support this you're sympathetic to pedophiles. Another way we're certainly inching to thought crimes and losing privacy even in our own homes.
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