Generally the laws are phrased so that the crime is engaging in sexual talk or arranging to meet to engage in sexual activity with a minor or someone the defendant believes is a minor. So in order to establish that a crime happened, the prosecutor needs to show only that the person had enough information in the chat that it’s clear they thought they were making arrangements with an underage person, like the ‘underaged’ person stating their pretend age and the defendant acknowledging it. The exact details vary state to state, and various specific wordings have fared differently in appeals courts, but in general this works fine legally speaking.
I am surprised that these men believe it’s actually a 14 year old girl they are talking with. As a middle aged man myself I’d be instantly suspicious if a 14 year old girl agreed to meet with me. Don’t they look in the mirror and realize they are really not that attractive to someone that young? It’s like ithey are delusional about how they are some sort of Casanova who is just going to sweep some young teen off her feet and run away together.
Also a lot of men are attracted to younger women because they think they will be easier to manipulate and control than an actual adult woman who has attained a level of maturity. It’s so they could mold them into what they think a “perfect mate” should be.
There’s nobody pretending to be an 18 year old offering to have sex with these guys; there’s only people pretending to be 14 years old offering to have sex wiith these guys. I’m pretty sure most of them would jump at the chance for sex with an 18 year old, they just don’t get the opportunity.
The 14 year old chat rooms are full of police sting operations, middle aged women age-playing, trolls looking for reactions, and people like Iggy up there proving a point. I’ll bet there’s less than a 50:50 chance that any random person in there is actually 14. With all that chum in the water; it’s no wonder there’s so many sharks hanging around.
I suspect an issue at play (for some of the men at least) is the appeal of a female who lacks the mental/emotional maturity of women more appropriate to their age ranges. These men utterly lack the social skills to relate to/date/flirt with women their age, so they take advantage of those with little-to-no experience to know better.
Ah, the internet. Where the men are men, the women are men, and the girls are FBI agents.
This. At least do something legal.
In the episode I watched, the woman met him and talked for a while. He could clearly see how she looked, and she was over 18. Yet he was still interested.
It’s just the idea that she’s young? Power imbalance? There are many legal woman that someone could find with a power imbalance.
Something taboo, I can understand, even if I don’t agree. Something illegal? No, I just don’t see it.
This has always been my best guess. The prefrontal cortex is basically the last part of the teenage brain to develop. Available evidence indicates that teens are able to evaluate risk, but their brains over-emphasize the perceived rewards of risky behavior. At the same time, they have less capacity to self-regulate their behavior because the prefontal cortex is still underdeveloped. And to top it all off, they lack the experience necessary to evaluate what is and is not ‘okay’ in their model of a healthy and rewarding relationship.
These girls are at an age where they are physically becoming mature, but the sexual predator’s interest is in finding someone who will not say ‘no,’ or defend their boundaries, or demand the reciprocity that comes with having a mature relationship.
I have no explanation for this. I suppose we should be thankful that these people are so often incompetent.
I remember when they arrested a POLICE OFFICER who had driven across several states to do this, and when they searched his car, they found all kinds of illegal weapons.
That was nothing compared to the guy who brought his preschool-aged son with him. :eek: I heard that the wife took her “for better or worse” vows seriously enough to choose him over the boy.
Some of these stings also involved boys.
They remind me a lot of men who pursue mail-order brides; they have some flaws (or multiple flaws) that keep them from having any kind of relationship, even FWB, with “real” women (or men), so they go this route instead.
It’ll be interesting to see how and if this is revisited as deep learning allows for the creation of sexually explicit material that appears to be of specific minors using porn of adults and fully wholesome normal video of minors as training material.
It is not at all clear to me where the line should be drawn here.
I remember a TCAP ep. where Chris Hansen asked a sullen perp “WHY” and he said something like,“Cause it’s the cleanest, purest pleasure.”
:dubious:
Read Lolita.
That quote made me a little physically ill. I guess I should be thankful that I don’t understand what these guys are thinking.
Gross.
I wonder how many of the people that Hansen caught were at their first attempted meet or had actually been successful in the past.
“She said she was 18 but by God she looked 13!”
Trying to remember where I stole that.
My uncle was caught with kiddie porn on his computer. He had been fired from one job for taking an underage girl to a hotel, as some sort of counselor and she was under his charge.
This was back in the 70s so he wasn’t prosecuted.
I don’t think that these people are just a normal people with one problem. I think they have serious problems.
That is exactly how Charlie Sheen described recieving a perfectly proportioned, expertly executed and lovingly administered Tanqueray, Tabasco Sauce & turpentine enema from the late, great Nipsey Russell.
I think dorvann’s post addresses that well. One of Chris Hansen’s gimmicks, early in the interview when he’s still in “let them think I’m a law enforcement officer” mode, is to ask these guys if they’ve ever done this before, or let them volunteer that they’ve never done it before, then act all sardonically skeptical and say something like “you understand why I find that hard to believe.” Yeah, right. What cute 13 year old girl is interested in a fat, bald, geeky looking 40 year old man? And before you say that these guys are conning the girls into thinking that they look like Justin Bieber or whoever the latest teen pop star is, the guys are sending accurate photos of themselves clearly revealing them to be fat, bald, geeky looking 40 year old men. It’s not like we’re talking about a guy who’s the girls sports coach or whatever and has had the chance to “groom” her. I find it very hard to believe that there is an epidemic of 13 year old girls inviting fat, bald, forty-year-old, geeky looking strangers over to their houses when they’re home alone.
The very first time they made this show they could legitimately call it an “investigation;” every episode since then is nothing more than soccer mom outrage porn.
He had a computer back in the 70s?
Which reminds me: There was a guy who was caught in a second televised sting! :smack: