Awhile back, this post noted the sad case of Louis Conradt, Jr, the Terrell, Texas prosecutor who killed himself late last year as the police were knocking on his door to arrest him. Conradt’s arrest was a part of a sting operation set up by Perverted Justice, the group that NBC Dateline has adopted as a highly profitable vehicle for generating mass anxiety about child sexual offenders. A Dateline NBC camera crew was outside Conradt’s house when he killed himself.
As this recent Allen Salkin/NY Times article notes, this arrangement has been mutually profitable for Perverted Justice and NBC. Perverted Justice receives $70,000 for every hour of Dateline content, while Dateline uses the 9 million or so viewers per pedophile episode to generate more ad revenue (Dateline nets only 7 million viewers for non-Pedo Dateline episodes). Inasmuch as business is good, Dateline already has six more Pedo-Dateline episodes in the pipeline for 2007.
In this insightful post, Dan Filler over at Concurring Opinions wonders about the efficacy of the Dateline-Perverted Justice venture and where it is leading us:
I leave to the Times article, and the various policy advocates, a discussion of the utility of this joint project. Will it reduce internet child abuse? Hard to know. Will it cause innocent people to suffer? Unclear. But it is time that we come to understand that the trade in fetishized fetishes is if nothing else weird and discomforting. And perhaps – just perhaps – it twists our own culture in exactly the direction we most abhor.
In this insightful post, Dan Filler over at Concurring Opinions wonders about the efficacy of the Dateline-Perverted Justice venture and where it is leading us:
When communities were smaller, public shame was one mechanism by which the community helped to shape behavior.
As we’ve become a more impersonal, urban (and litigious!) society, public shame seems to have taken a back seat to the relativistic notion that most anything a person might do is simply a lifestyle choice.
I’m not sure how reviving public shaming of people who act in a manner that the public overwhelmingly agrees is outside the bounds of acceptable moral behavior (i.e. taking advantage of children sexually) is “twist[ing] our own culture in exactly the direction we most abhor.” Quite likely, as a teacher of ours might have observed, it takes an “intellectual” to come up with that assertion. I’m not a part of that crowd, so count me mystified.
The most recent Dateline episodes show these moral degenerates actually showing up and expecting to have sex with underage minors. There’s no question about their intent, so we’re not even talking about possible misunderstandings (and unfair defamation) here.
I’m not sure that it takes a great deal of ‘relativism’ to suggest that there is something suspect about “Trial by Dateline”.
That television show has a profit motive for ‘shaming’ people, and if a non-profit group has knowledge of a crime that may be comitted, why shouldn’t they be expected to turn that information over to the police? Is it OK to act like Batman because it makes good television, and ‘might’ deter someone? But for all the publicity, it doesn’t seem to have worked yet.
Reality show vigilantism, victimization for entertainment, and reveling in sexual perversion: three more reasons I’m glad I don’t own a TV.
I definitely have to side with Kevin on this one. High profile arrests are a big deal. Police departments do it when they make a big bust. I don’t see anything wrong with this group doing the same.
Besides no crime is “about to be committed” because it’s a set-up. Secondly, they do get the police involved and hand them a case in its entirety. I have difficulty understand who exactly is losing here.
I think there’s a natural twitch in us that want to say “private things should remain private” (the crux of Filler’s complaint is that airing the laundry stinks up the joint)… but I just don’t find that impulse justified here.
There is something unsavory about a group of ‘citizens’ forming a posse, using aliases, and entrapment to catch ‘pedophiles’.
They err on the definition of pedophile. I clicked on one offender, who solicited a 14 year-old boy. That is NOT pedophilia. Pedophilia is attraction to a pre-pubertal child. Attraction to a teenager, or a post-pubertal adolescent is ephebophilia.
Over and over this group makes this mistake. Such a fundamental mistake in their definitions indicates amateurism.
The group refers to the men they entrap as ‘pervs’, and ‘pedos’. While these men could be unsavory, and might be predators, those of us in professions know not to use derogatory terms for anyone.
Are the men trapped by the site, guilty? Although they may stand accused by the web site, and even accussed by law enforcement, are they guilty? Then why is the site calling them ‘pervs’?
Further, my own research has indicated that pedophiles often are sexually abused as youngsters, suffer from alcoholism and other mental disorders, and even have endocrine imbalances. Thus, although their actions are certainly not exemplary, they might be considered ëpatientsí, rather than ëpervsí. Such men would deserve treatment rather than ridicule.
The ridicule, the excitement, the gusto which this group pursues ëpervsí suggests to me that there is a vicarious thrill of the chase. I suspect that true law enforcement when charged with a mission, pursue their mission with professionalism, rather than sensationalism.
The revelation that this group is receiving remuneration for their sleuthing, muddies the waters even more. It would seem this is vigilante entrapment for profit. A law enforcement group should take charge of these renegade detectives to direct their efforts toward supervised volunteerism, rather than propagating the vigilante aspect of the group.
A group of vigilantes pursuing ëpedophilesí, for the entertainment of NBC viewers really makes me queasy. Part of the liberties granted to this group is accounted for by the nature of the unsavory men they are pursuing. Almost no one would defend a true pedophile. Thus, a rogue group can entrap pedophiles almost at will, and berewarded for bending the rules.
Where does this vigilante paid entertainment going? Could a group of citizen decide to entrap policemen beating their wives by causing stressful situations and serving the cops booze? Could they put up prostitution sting operations to catch lawyers on leave in Dallas? Could they deliver male hookers to doctors at a medical convention in New Orleans? Could they sell marijuana to real estate agents in Boston? Wife beating, prostitution, & drug use are all crimes too. Would such sting operations be allowed if prominent physicians were caught watching an illegal stag party? Could those images be published on the Internet? Would law enforcement tag along if the target group were more socially connected businessmen than lone pedophiles? Would NBC air drunken gynecologists giving dollar bills to strippers to get face to face with breasts?
There needs to be some serious thought put into this group. And NBC –that apparently needs reality programming– should step back and ask how they would feel if a rogue group decided to entrap media bosses by planting sexy secretaries, working late hoursÖ.
First Off….There Is No Crime…This Is Pure Entrapment, They Are like Making up a Crime, ..Twisted and Sad…For Ratings and for a Show for $$$…This Is More Perverted than the Pedophiles….First No 12, 13 or 14 Year Old Girl Is Going to Even Talk to a 40 Year Old Man….Lmao…My Buddy Has 3 Daughters and They Think a Guy in His Late 20’s Is a Old Man…Lol..They Are Teen Girls…So this Is Not Even a Reaity…This Is a Total Made up Crime That Is Just Wrong….It Would Be Different If There Was a Real Victim…But There Is None…Ask Any 13 Year Old Boy or Girl If They Would like to Meet a Guy Who Is 29 Years Old….Lmao..They Will Say Hell No!!…just Doesnot Happen…In Chris Hansens and Perverted Justices Fantasies…..Twisted