Dateline NBC: To Trap a Predator?

September 23, 2006 at 9:27 am nathan118 7 comments

Last night we watched the Dateline NBC show "To Catch a Predator." If you’ve never seen it, what happens is Dateline goes to a certain house and sets up hidden cameras. Then with the help of a group called Perverted Justice, they convince men that they are chatting online with an underage girl that wants to have sex with them. The men are then invited over to this specific house with the expectation of having sex with a 13-15 year old girl.

When the men arrive there is an "of age" decoy that waves from the front door, letting the man know he has the right house. When he comes in she’s inside waiting to duck behind a curtain. From behind the curtain she’s keeps talking to the man until he is comfortably inside. Right about now the host of the show walks out from behind the curtain and starts grilling the man. "What were you going to do here today?" "Why should I believe this is the first time?" Once the host is done with the individual he tells them they are free to go. As soon as they walk out the door they are swarmed by a group of law of enforcement and arrested. They only show some of what happens after the arrest, but their bail is set and they go before a judge for trial. Whether they are found guilty and locked up, they didn’t say.

The entire show I’m watching these despicable characters show up, get caught, and get arrested. As much as I want to not like these guys, something just wasn’t sitting right. They were never talking to a minor online about sexual material, and in fact they never had a single interaction with a minor. They thought they were, but they were talking to an adult posing as a child, and they were being fed every sexual fantasy they wanted to hear.

Here’s my question to the rest of you, and hopefully you’ve seen the show and have some background. In this one episode in a single town in Georgia they had 20 men come to the house. The problem I have is that there was no minor actually soliciting sex. Is the show creating a need that doesn’t really exist? Obviously the men wouldn’t mind having sex with a minor if the situation presented itself, but what if that situation never does present itself? What if every parent was doing their job and making sure their 13 year old daughter wasn’t online chatting with old men perverts? These men might be twisted enough to show up given the proper temptation, but what if there was no temptation?

What if the above situation never presents itself to these 20 men? Does that mean they’re all going to turn into rapists someday, or will they’ll never act on these desires that they have? A little analogy I can think of is, what if Dateline did the same thing to catch crooks? They could setup a man on the street with a million dollar bill hanging out of his pocket. As people walk by and are presented with temptation, that otherwise never presents itself, of course some people are going to give in and try to steal it. The problem is that situation never presents itself and most people never become crooks.

The men in this show are guilty of being disgusting people, but are they guilty of an actual crime? Are they truly a danger to society, or have they been setup beyond reality to give in to their greatest temptations?

Misc dateline nbc, hidden cameras, perverted justice, sexual fantasy

Comments

Written by amy about 5 years ago.

i agree with what you are saying. the fact is, those men thought they were going to have sex with little girls, and that’s gross, and it’s good that something is being done about that…but it seems like if the people at dateline and perverted justice wanted to do even more good, maybe they should target men who actually ARE interacting with minors…instead of luring men into interacting with “minors” and then arresting them for falling into the trap. seems like they’re just creating more sexual offenders instead of catching people who already are. but here’s what i want to know…how do they find these men online in the first place? are these guys already in chat rooms full of teenage girls? because if they are, that might be something different. but if not…then how do they find them in the first place?
Written by Angelo about 5 years ago.

I have not seen the show, but I have seen the hilarious Conan O’Brien parody of it during the Emmy’s opener (if you haven’t seen it, youtube should have it up).

There’s a great website called: Catch A Perv that does a similar thing, they pretend to be young and have a webcam chat with men and then finally expose them as the sick people they are… it’s funny!

Back on topic… I don’t see any other way to catch a sexual predator, unless you catch them in the act (which will be too late for the “minor”) it would be very hard to catch a predator.
It’s kind of similar to the prostitute sting situations you see on cops all the time but there is an actual crime taking place in those situations, still they are baited and setup.

I say as long as the law (police) are involved I wouldn’t care, if it’s just to make good TV (dateline’s ratings go up) then it’s bad!
Written by nathan118 about 5 years ago.

From what they told us they met them in AOL chat rooms. What they were called and who else was there, I don’t know. They said one guy they had been chatting with for 3 weeks. All of the guys did seem to be “weird,” one guy even bordering on mentally retarded I think.

As just a source of entertainment it wasn’t that good. They basically just showed the guys coming in and talking to the host. After the fourth or fifth guy it’s kinda the same thing over and over.
Written by Padfoot240 about 5 years ago.

Isn’t it kind of like the same thing as “Murder by Intent” or “Intent with Murder” or whatever it is??
Written by Denise about 5 years ago.

Things I’ve learned from watching COPS. In catching criminals, the police have to be wary of “entrapment,” which includes the very thing you’re describing: If you provide the situation for committing a crime, haven’t you thereby contributed to the crime’s comission, and are you not therefore in some way responsible? So they provide multiple opportunities to back out of the situation (often a vice squad sting to catch prostitution solicitors), act only after the guy has made a clear and voluntary statement of his intentions, and only after money has changed hands. That way, in court, it is clear that the guy’s intent and willingness were clear and uncoerced–in other words, he would’ve done the same thing to any prostitute, but his ‘prostitute’ happened to be a female police officer.

I don’t work with children or child abusers, but here’s what I know from psychology. Most sexual predators prey on their own family members–daughters, neices–or friends of their family members. Often another family member (i.e. mom) has her blinders on and is aiding the abuse by ignoring it. This intra-family abuse is a VERY difficult thing for the police to find out about and successfully prosecute, particularly considering abused young women have understandable reluctance to send their fathers, uncles, etc. to jail. For men who don’t have ready access to a victim, or who wish to supplement their ongoing abuse activity, the internet is a fantastic avenue to use. And if the police were not online offering fake 15-year-old opportunities, there would still be PLENTY of opportunity, often from young girls who have already been abused and who have learned to interact with men in this way. By time a guy is actually soliciting sex in this more public (outside the family) way, it is highly unlikely to be his first crime and it won’t be his last unless he’s caught. Children, unlike grown prostitutes, require society’s protection and I am willing to strain the law to its utmost to protect minors from predators. The fact that their parents should be more responsible doesn’t prevent abusers and abusees from filling prisons, therapy rooms, courtrooms and from ending up participating in drug use and prostitution at high rates–all of which have huge financial and moral costs to society. Remember!!!!! Rates of childhood abuse are thought to be about 1 in 3 or 4 for women and 1 in 5 for men. With numbers like that, predators just aren’t waiting around for the police to provide them with opportunities.
Written by nathan118 about 5 years ago.

If there’s anything that makes me confident in the job they are doing it’s that these men physically came to the house. It’s one thing to chat online, but to actually make a 2.5 hour trip to a house is pretty creepy. As much of a temptation as it might be to chat online, by physically going to the house it definitly ups the ante (and says something about the individual).

They did mention that they were being charged with a felony. I forget the name of the charge, something like attempted sex with a minor, but it could result in 1-5 years in jail. I assume that’s a shorter sentence than actual child molestation.

I’m not sure this would even fall under entrapment. In a prostitution or drug bust, the police are sort of committing the crime to lure someone in and bust them. It must be state law that attempting to have sex with a minor is illegal, because despite the huge setup, there wasn’t even a minor involved. Basically they’re going to jail for being willing to have sex with a minor, which I guess I’m ok with. They make a strong effort to find out the intentions of the guy, sometimes with pages and pages of chat records. Some of the guys would even send nekkid pictures and one guy brought condoms and lingerie.
Written by to madre. about 5 years ago.

i agree

Dateline NBC: To Trap a Predator?

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