There's an excellent documentary from last year called Predators. The director is a survivor of CSA, and he was very pointed in confronting Hansen about the show creating more problems than it solved.

The show didn't need to exist in the first place. If the police wanted to run a sting and arrest people, they could do it without a primetime show. They had young adult actors playing the "bait" kids, and the actors were traumatized from witnessing people's lives being ruined. Many of the "predators" were borderline vulnerable adults, and the producers relished in filming people having nervous breakdowns, realizing their lives were ruined. Many of the "predators" admitted they had a problem and asked the producers for help finding treatment, but there was no support. IIRC the vast majority of cases resulted in no jail time, and sometimes no punishment at all.

The show was cancelled when they surrounded a guy's house and he shot himself. Since the cancellation, Chris Hansen has created several iterations on increasingly obscure channels, and the show sparked tons of vigilante copycats who just create nightmares for local police.

[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Thanks for the summary, the wikis are very sanitized and lack real info.

As somebody from Europe, I heard of the show but never saw it - checked a few clips now, and it gave me the ick. Unnecessary is indeed the right word for it, it seems to be just self-righteous vigilantism by a very self-centered person.

The situations remind me of sting operations were police nudge poor and vulnerable people until they purchase pot, then get sent to jail. Maybe these resources would be better spent chasing existing criminals and helping victims, instead of creating new ones.