To Catch a Predator

pratt1

I am sure that everyone has heard of the Dateline Eposides of "To Catch a Predator".

It's pretty disturbing to see so many men who appear to be normal, are caught trying to solicit a sexual relationship with a minor.

I have 2 questions for you posters.

1. Do you consider the tactics of the Dateline show entrapment?

2. Since several caught are from cultures that allow and often encourage adult men to marry much younger teenaged girls, should these men be charged with lesser charges?

3. In you go back 50 years in you own family's history, where there marriage unions between an adult male and a teen aged girl?

Don't get me wrong, there's something creepy and definitely wrong about a grown man offering sex to a teenager, but I will also acknowledge that right here in the USA marriages involving older men and teenaged girls was acceptable just a few decades ago.

Any comments?

Zico

I have 2 questions for you posters.

Actually you have 3!

1. Do you consider the tactics of the Dateline show entrapment?

No. They would almost certainly do the same thing to real children.

2. Since several caught are from cultures that allow and often encourage adult men to marry much younger teenaged girls, should these men be charged with lesser charges?

No, they're no longer in those cultures, and they should have to follow the laws of whatever country they are in.

3. In you go back 50 years in you own family's history, where there marriage unions between an adult male and a teen aged girl?

Yes. When my Grandmother was 17, she married my 31 year old Grandfather. Although, there's a big difference between this and adults soliciting 13/14 year old girls on Internet chatrooms.

Leolaia

1) No (I think legally offering opportunities to commit crimes is not entrapment per se, and the sting is operated by NBC/Perverted Justice staff, not the police), 2) No (Absolutely not), 3) Don't think so. On 19th-century laws, see for example: http://www.denverpost.com/editorials/ci_3947563

Gregor

I have no problem with the programs tactics. Most of these fools have already sent explicit e-mails and even pictures of their pathetic willies. It seems to me that a large percentage of the men are looking for young boys to bugger. I have no sympathy for those who get caught and have their lives (many are model citizens with good jobs, wives and kids) shattered.

Latin American cultures consider females to be ready for sex when they reach puberty, 12 or 13 yrs. old. However, this is typically in the context of marriage, not recreation. If these men come to the US and expect to have their way with girls this age they need to pay the consequences.

Rayvin

Another reason it is not entrapment is because they don't go online and search the bad men out. The perverted men search them out and initiate the nasty conversation on their own.

Cold Creek Swimmer

As often as that show is on, it is their fault that they get caught. How stupid does a person have to be to try and hook up with a minor on the net? It is unbelievable to me that these guys, especially the older ones, think that a young girl or boy would want anything to do with them. It is even more amazing that they are willing to risk their whole lives to get with these children. They get what they deserve and if more kids are saved from these predators because of this show, then it is working.

VanillaMocha73

Question 3) My lovely JW ex-husband was 32 when he married, me, barely 18.