You may have seen one of the Dateline NBC segments called “To Catch a Predator” that have been running on a regular basis for several months now. The premise is that a child advocacy group called Perverted Justice has adults pose as underage children on the Internet. One of these “children” will arrange to have a predator meet him or her. As soon as the guy walks into the house, he’s confronted by Chris Hansen and a team of cameramen. After a short embarrassing interview, they’ll let the guy go — into the hands of local cops who are waiting for him to come outside so they can arrest him. I find the whole thing very disturbing, but maybe not for the same reasons a lot of other people do.
As far as I can tell, the “predators” are arrested for coming to a house with the intention of having sex with a minor. However, there is no sex, and no minor. What are these men being arrested for?
Yes, it’s creepy that they show up. However, I don’t think it should be dismissed that they were enticed to show up by an adult. Sure, the adult is posing as a child online (usually stating at some point that he or she is 15 or 16 years old), but that doesn’t change that the fact that the “child” is really an adult. These predators are being enticed to show up for sex with someone with whom it’s perfec
tly legal for them to have sex. That person may be claiming to be underage, but they’re also going along with, and possibly participating in the whole seduction process. Dateline would like you to think it doesn’t matter, but the fact remains that these guys are being seduced by adults, whether they own up to it online or not.
Another thing that concerns me is that these guys are stopped and interviewed the moment they come through the door, then promptly arrested. While I’ll concede that it gives me the willies that these guys show up at all, who’s to say they wouldn’t have changed their minds when they saw the child (if there actually was one)? Some also claim that they were only coming over to talk. While that may be unlikely, whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Is it now a crime to think about having sex with a minor? Has it become a felony to be turned on by a 16-year-old? If it has, the pop music industry is in for a huge dip in sales.
I just don’t see how anyone arrested for showing up at a Dateline sting could be prosecuted. Isn’t the standard in criminal cases that guilt has to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt? There’s plenty of room for doubt here. Would the man have shown up if there had been an actual child involved? Would he have stayed? Would they have had sex? I think any of those could possibly be answered with a “no,” regardless of how distasteful the preceeding online chat may have been.
If this was any other crime, this would clearly be entrapment. Since it’s “for the children,” though, Dateline and the cops come off looking like heroes.
Children may need protecting, but not when it means inprisonment on false pretenses, for sexual offenses that haven’t been committed. Apparently, Orwell’s prediction of “thought crimes” was only off the mark by by 22 years.
I’ve decided I’m Canadian.
