this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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I remember looking up the people To Catch A Predator worked with and reading some of their chat logs. The decoy was always very upfront in giving an age unambiguously below the age of consent in their jurisdiction, and never initiated conversation about sex or suggested meeting in person.
Of course, the decoy would always agree to do so if the offender asked, but the criminal conduct was unambiguously criminal, and unambiguously the offender's idea. What we see in this article appears to abandon that sort of rigor to manufacture more opportunities to confront someone.
Aka entrapment.
Yes, though legally that's a bit of a grey area. It's only really entrapment if law enforcement or informants entice the offender to commit a crime they weren't predisposed to commit. I imagine it would be an uphill battle to convince a judge or jury of that when it comes to meeting minors for sex.
The decoys were careful so that it would never even be a question.
The article says that they would just lie too.
Like, they claimed one guy (18) was there to meet a minor (17). When the reporter reviewed the logs it was clear that he was there to meet an 18 year old.
Getting views is more important than catching a bad guy
It is not technically entrapment because they aren't police, but they are cosplaying as cops so the label gets the point across.