To Catch a Predator

No

These individuals who are posing as minors only follow along in the conversation. They do not initiate the conversation or initiate contact. The possibility of contact between the two is aroused when they say their parents are away for the weekend, but it is up to the predator to initiate everything.

When sexual matters are discussed, they ask no questions or make any requests. They only really laugh and smile or say Whats that?

The predators control these conversations and we need to find satisfaction in the fact they are not talking to minors.

We also need to remember that some of these predators are driving several hours to contact with these people. They are not driving several hours in the middle of the night to chit-chat.

*dons flame retardant underwear*

By any means necessary and if this is a repeat offender, string them up, literally.

There's no treatment, no cure, so remove them so that further victims will not have to live with those memories for the rest of their lives.

You all have no idea how glad I am that I'm not the only one who dispises these monsters to this degree...I sometimes wonder if what my family went through has clouded my judgement to such an extent that I've gone somewhat nuts on the subject.

There is such a need for a national registry to track these nightmares incarnate. I know that here in the US there is a strong movement afoot for such a program. For the life of me I can't remember what its called at the moment. How many other countries have this sort of law already on the books if any do? So often, a registered sexoffender in one state just moves to another and continues on his predatious pattern of behaviour. I am deathly afraid that is precisely what my nephew is going to do...little does he know that as soon as he settles, that county is going to get an email from me. My love of family only goes so far...

This is one of those tricky areas regarding the law. What to do to stop these molesters?
Most likely there will never be an answer that everyone agrees with, depending on their own experiences. I do think the justice system is messed up, because the vast majority of these people are repeat offenders but they're not sentenced to life in prison or even for very long prison sentences. I agree that we need to lock them up for life at the very least. Surely, the justice system must know that these guys are not able to be rehabbed, yet they keep doing the same thing, giving them 2 or 3 yrs behind bars, then releasing them? What's up with that I wonder.

And while entrapment online sounds like a good idea, I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I'm against entrapment in general, but this is not going after a drug user or a prostitute. This affects the child's entire life and they become seriously wounded as a result of being molested. The problem for me against entrapping them online is that it does open the door for entrapment of anyone else, for whatever crime. It kind of smacks of the "thought police" to me.

I do have to wonder though, where are the parents? When I was a kid, like 7 y.o., my mother told me to stay away from strangers, all of them period, because I could be kidnapped and seriously harmed. I listened to her, because I didn't want to get myself hurt or in trouble. Are parents not doing that these days? Are parents not explaining to them the dangers of online molesters trying to entice children into sex? Are the kids not listening? What's going on with that? Does anyone here have any experience or different view they'd like to share. I'm honestly puzzled as to why the justice system has it's head in the sand and how parents are handling this topic with their kids and teenagers. Anyone have any ideas as to why or what's going on?

Forestlady. All too often the Internet is a surroget babysitter for working parents and latchkey kids. These monsters know this and play on that. A lonely kid gets on a chat line and meets what seems to be a freindly voice who is careing and freindly, with an interesting line...let's be freinds...followed by let's get together...followed by nightmare.

The internet is to this young generation what TV was to all too many of my generation. Mommy, Daddy, and best freind all rolled into one. Only in some cases the internet is so much more dangerous. Yes, the kids listen when their parents tell them not to talk to strangers, but on the internet we're all friends right? We can talk to anybody, about anything...and no ones hurt. No one except the ones who can least afford to be hurt...

Forrestlady does have a point though SG. Parents should monitor what their kids do online. Up to a certain age of course. That age would be dertermined by the individual child.

Yes, she does have a very good point. I'm in total agreement. It's just that all to often that's exactly what's happening. It isn't that the parents don't care...it's just they can't be everywhere at once. These monsters know this, and exploit it. They may be evil, but evil doesn't equate to stupid.

My parents monitored my reading habits when I was a kid, but I still managed to get ahold of reading material my parents would never in a million years allowed me to read...kids will push the boundries despite monitoring. We all did it, so will these kids today...it's just that cyberspace is, or can be, a much more dangerous place than my favorite used book store.

seagull has made a great point. (Not even sure if it was the main point of your post)

When he brings up Latchkey children.

Its a shocking stat to realize that the majority of crimes with children happen between 3 & 6PM. Yes right after school is when these children are wide open to injury or the victim of a sexual predator.

What is a Latchkey Child?

These are children who do not have their parents available to them before or after school. In todays society it is not strange to have both parents having to work full time jobs. This has the percentage of Latchkey children on the rise, and it will continue to grow. This is only making it easier for Sexual Predators to get their hands on these children, and possibly a tremendous head start before having anyone on their tail.

Rehabilitation is not in the vocabulary for these creatures. Often they are repeat offenders, if one is released without offending again you can imagine the struggles they go through daily. Its a scary though when you think about it, to think of our children walking passed these people on the street. The thought that some random stranger can snatch your child off the sidewalk in the blink of an eye has parents cringing.

We've all been children before and we all know the sence of invincibility that comes with it. It's easy to say that things were different in your day but they weren't. The media has brought these stories into all our homes in todays society, so maybe things are more publicized where in the past it was abit of a taboo.

So it is evident that our system itself is partly to blame for the amount of children at risk. With both parents having to work to support a family, more and more children are left at home alone in the hours where they are most vulnerable.

It's bad enough to carry on a sexually explicit conversation with a minor, but to actually show up at their house with certain products,...... that's stepping over a boundary that should have never been crossed. These people know it is wrong, but they do it because they don't know how to control themselves. Most (if not all) of them are sick in the head. I give a few the benefit of doubt, only because sometimes people do make one-time mistakes in their lives.

The 18-24 year olds may not yet be thinking clearly about WHY it is wrong to do such things, even though they know it is against the law. This is probably a bad example, but it's sort of like the way people think about pot. People smoke it even though it is against the law. They just can't see a logical reason why pot should be illegal, so they feel no moral wrong in "breaking the law". In the same way, some people can't see a logical reason why a 14-16 year old shouldn't be ready/mature enough for a sexual encounter. They know it is against the law, but in their heads they feel they're not doing anything that's morally wrong. That's my guess why this keeps happening. Well,... that's one of the many reasons it happens anyway.

These people may have explanations for their actions, but there is never an excuse.

Remorse shown by these men after they are busted is no doubt authentic. Without a doubt in that moment they would take it back and never do it again!. Well until they log on again and ask a few extra questions next time.

Remorse, Apologies, Forgiveness

Not having any of it. If a man assaults another guy in a fit of rage, so be it. You can find room for forgiveness in these situations. But there is always that line we speak of that nobody would dare cross. When somebody crosses it, they have given up all basic human rights.

Originally posted by chissler
These people may have explanations for their actions, but there is never an excuse.

But there is always that line we speak of that nobody would dare cross. When somebody crosses it, they have given up all basic human rights.

Do we remember the name of the thread? "To Catch a Predator."

One Look Dictionary: Predator:

noun: any animal that lives by preying on other animals.

Sounds canibalistic to me. Fortunately, humans are also predators(pedophiles aren't human imo). We have the eyes in the front of our heads(assesses distance), determining that we ARE predators. We are also parents. And have minds. What better combination to protect our children from the canibalistic tendancies of these parasites? The only thing missing is the collective will of us all.

chissler

If your reply was meant for me, I want to clarify that I am not excusing this behavior in any way, shape or form,...... I'm only trying to offer a reason why it happens, and what might be going on in the head of the offender. What these men were caught doing was wrong, wrong, wrong. No doubt about it. Their pleas for forgiveness mean nothing to me, they are crocodile tears.

No Sir'ee.

I was not directing my post at you my friend.

Thanks Chissler, Seagull, et al for answering my questions about where are the parents? You make good points. And I've read that many parents are also having to work 2 jobs in order to make ends meet, even when both parents are working. I'm telling you, something is wrong with our system when parents have to spend so much time away from their children.

I agree with the person who said these predators probably don't think they're doing anything wrong. So often I've heard them say that they weren't doing anything wrong, they loved the child and just wanted to make them feel good. Sick, sick, sick...

First off, I make no excuses or defense for these people. However, I do think there is a problem with our society that goes beyond their individual perversions. We all have perversions, unacceptable desires of one kind or another. When we *act* on those desires is when it's a danger to society, and I think Dateline is doing a service to the public by tipping these people's hands to *act* and I have no problems with their methods. If they have that little control of their desires, then they need to be exposed. I don't buy the "they will never change" line. Personally, I believe in redemption and rehabilitation, but that's just a personal opinion.

But, I think as a culture we're sending mixed messages to people who have this screwed up pedophelia crossed-wiring. On the one hand we abhor them even more than serial killers, but at the same time we treat the children of our society like adults. We make superstars out of Lindsay Lohan and the Olsen Twins at 12 years old and dress them up like pinup queens for photo shoots and then wag a finger when someone notices. I have a 5 year old daughter and I've tried, and will continue to try, to let her be a kid. I'm not saying that anyone is to blame except the predators themselves, but I do think that American culture needs to step back from the precipice of forcing our kids to grow up too soon. Everytime I walk by a newstand and see that glamour shot of Jon Benet Ramsey on the cover of People or US Weekly, or whatever peice of crap magazine is still making money off of her death, it makes me sick. Her parents may or may not have been involved in her death, but if I were them I'd feel guilty as hell anyway.

We're making a mistake in calling these people pedophiles because that means 'child-lover'. Nobody who loves children would want to have sex with them. It's like a previous poster said though 'we dress 12 year olds up in sexy clothes and are shocked when somebody takes notice' (paraphrased). We've had a debate about that in this country recently, what with all the teenage pregnancies going on, and still nothing's been done about it. Kids should be treated like kids, not mini-adults, so that these weak-minded people don't see them as sex-objects. Chicken and egg though, because if they didn't have the thoughts in the first place then they wouldn't be turned-on by kids dressed as tarts.

Originally posted by jimboman
...Chicken and egg though, because if they didn't have the thoughts in the first place then they wouldn't be turned-on by kids dressed as tarts.

But thoughts, regardless of how sick and twisted, aren't illegal and we can't *control* the thoughts of the predators. What we can control is the way we present our children and protect them from becoming a part of those thoughts. Every parent is concerned about how their children use the internet, but how many are concerned about how they dress or the make-up they wear? I think that's something parents should be very aware of as well.

With all due respect, I must disagree with the belief in redemption and rehabilitation of these monsters. All too often these animals have been doing this all their lives. There is no rehab. or redemption possible when they don't see what they've done as wrong. Many, I won't say all, simply do not have the moral compass that you and I have that tells us when our behaviour is bad, or in the cases we're discussing, evil. Without a moral balance as a reference point, there can be no redemption.

We aren't talking about the ones who only fantasize and control their deviance (sick as it may be). They pose, at the moment, no danger to society in general, and children in particular. All of us, at one time or another, have had that evil random thought, telling us to do something bad, that thought is followed instantly by "God, that's sick..." or something along those lines. These sickos don't have the follow up "God, that's sick...". Their thoughts are followed by action.

SKMDC1 makes a great point.

The way our children are being portrayed is concerning. Would this solve the problem? No, but it would certainly stop giving more of an incentive to these creatures.

I can remember hearing about the count down until the Olsen twins became legal. Grown men actually focused on these girls birthday so giving them a go wouldn't land them in jail. Does anyone think that Jon Benet's murder was not related to the beauty pageants she was regularly competing in?

Our children need to be just that, children.

I agree...but only to a point. These crimes aren't about some form of misguided love. It's about power. Most of these losers have no power over anything even remotely resembling the adult world, much less actual adults. So they fixate on something they can control: Children.

That Olson twin countdown, there was one for Lindsey Lohan, too; is just sick.

Yes the pictures of Jonbenet Ramsey probably did play a role...but the creature that did it would have done it anyway. Maybe not to JonBenet, but to some other innocent little girl.