to catch a predator
Call me crazy or insensitive or a nut-job civil libertarian, but will one of the number of attorneys I know (Huevos? Psmee? Il Gato?) please explain to me how it is possible for Dateline NBC to be in-cahoots with law enforcement and have these men arrested for merely chatting with decoy children?
They are disgusting pedophiles, yes, and I'm sure they're in need of serious counseling, but haven't they yet to commit a crime? Or is it a crime to chat with and bring condoms to an individual that you THINK is a minor? How is this constitutional?
Just school me. I'm not justifying their behavior at all. I just feel like I'm missing something here.
Update:
In doing some research, I have found that US Code: Title 18, §2422(b) states:
Whoever, using the mail or any facility or means of interstate or foreign commerce, or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any individual who has not attained the age of 18 years, to engage in prostitution or any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title and imprisoned not less than 5 years and not more than 30 years.
So, key words here are interstate commerce, entices, individual who has not attained the age of 18 years, and sexual activity.
HOWEVER, the decoys were not minors, and so the behavior falls under the "attempts to do so" clause?
I don't know. I'm no lawyer. I'm just wonderin'.
8 comments:
forget the legality, that show gives journalism a bad name!!!
I agree.
If you haven't yet seen it, Frontline's "News War" is requisite viewing.
I too find the Dateline show disturbing, and not in the way they intend. I think once was enough to make their point. It's too creepily sensational and (potentially) weirdly titillating to be accomplishing anything. And yeah, entrapment much?
(I'm actually surprised by my own reaction to it. Given my views on pedophilia and the sexualization of girls/children, what they are doing *must* be smarmy)
Yeah, I saw that, and it should be entrapment, but probably no more so than undercover cops posing as drug clients. I wonder how many of these cases are actually prosecuted, too. Also, most of the pedophiles are foreign guys, and different standards of moral turpitude apply in different countries. It's weird and bizarre but apparently a lot of dudes are out there looking for young women to, ummm, talk to.
I don't actually think this is entirely the correct statute because, in many states, age of consent is younger than 18. Furthermore, this seems to be a prostitution law moreso than a stat. rape law.
Yeah, there's this whole thing about "intent" and "attempt" that makes it illegal. Like in law school we learned that if you don't have a hunting license and you shoot a plastic deer thinking it's real you will get in trouble because you thought the deer was real.
But seriously, this show is a sign of the apocalypse. Last week one of the guys they caught was a district attorney and he ended up blowing his brains out on national TV when they came to his house to arrest him.
The end is near.
Yeah, Al, I'm interested in how this doesn't constitute entrapment. I need to get "Law for Dummies" or something.
KB, every website that I can find points to this statute. I'll do more research, because I see what you mean about age of consent. (And speaking of entrapment and prostitution, I usually get a good chuckle from "Cops" -- unless they're target sex workers.)
Thanks, Il Gatto, for weighing in with your legal skillz. So, it's all about intent. (I agree: the end is clearly near.)
From the May 16, 2006 edition of the NYT:
"Those who raise questions about entrapment (...) have a point. It is hard to tell from the program whether the suspects are active predators intent on luring children into offline sexual encounters or kinky fantasists tempted by 'Dateline' into crossing a line."
So, it would only be entrapment if it could be proven that the men commited a crime unintentionally?
Today, I wanna be a lawyer.
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