Sure the program may serve as a deterrent to this type of immoral behavior, however I have issues in the way the show is presented. Although most of the “criminals” are guilty, the show just makes a “joke” of what well could be a mental issue, plus each individuals entire life is ruined based on a kind of “disease or weird obsession” for lack of a better word.
Although justice works in such a way, one horrible crime will lead to life in prison (which is just in most crimes IMO) , these types of programs are a bit bothersome.
I put this in the Pit because sexual predators on young children is a delicate issue, so it might get heated.
While I’m not sure I completely support the show, as I’m sure it was first thought of for ratings and not to aid police, exploitation at it’s finest.
I do disagree with the quoted section of your OP though. The individual’s life was ruined when they decided to act upon something they know is illegal. The individual ruined their life, plain and simple.
True, and I agree that most of the things that are illegal are “wrong”. However I do not think the law is the final word in morality.
In this particular case, the crime is horrible and they deserve jail time, but the fact that the only image you have of that person is the image of a sexual predator makes it even worse in terms of reputation and rehabilitation.
We all commit “crimes” at one point in our lives and judging a person as “x” for a particular bad trait that is exploited in the show is a bit too harsh for me.
Whether or not someone agrees with the law is irrelevant. But trust me, I don’t put a lot of stock into certain specific laws. However, if I get caught while scoffing at these specific laws, I’ll take my lumps like a responsible adult. If it ruins my life, so be it, as it was my choice from the beginning to run that risk.
Mostly agreed.
How so? My opinion of these people will never directly (or even indirectly I’d bet) affect the people shown.
Why is it too harsh for you?
It’s not just a “bad trait” these guys have. It’s not a cute quirk in their personality. They seek out very young girls for the almost immediately expressed interest of sexually exploiting them. That’s predatory to me and I have no qualms with them being branded as such.
Or am I just very badly misunderstanding your position?
I have only seen a couple episodes, but I like the fact that these people are caught red-handed and are made to squirm for our amusement. Add to that the fact that they are likely going to squirm for a large cellmate’s amusement as well and you have the voyeuristic trifecta.
who gives a shit about the root of the problem? Lock them up, I don’t care about their potty training. What do you want, these perverts to appear on a season of Sexual Predator Rehab with Dr. Drew?
No of course it doesn’t. Nor would I expect it to. I expect this show to bring to light the extent that pedophilia, of sorts, is in our society
The same way COPS only shows us the entertaining stuff. Not the legal, behind-the-scenes stuff.
I do agree that the root problem needs to be addressed. Call it a problem with our justice system though, not the show TCaP. Our justice system is very obviously more focused on locking people up (as portrayed by SFP) than fixing them.
The problem with this line of thinking is that the crimes these guys commit do not usually have them in jail for a long period of time. Some of them get mere weeks in jail. This is where fixing the root of the problem comes in handy.
Check out the very end of one of those episodes where they tell you what sentence each person received. There is rarely serious jail time involved, and I don’t think there has been one prison sentence.
It seems to vary greatly from state to state. In California they get a lot sentences like 3 days in jail and 4 years probation, but in Georgia everyone was getting 4 or 5 years in prison.
Has the show ever once dealt with genuine pedophiles? Because, every show I’ve seen involved men seeking kids 13+, which makes them ephebophiles, a different ball of wax entirely. Skeevy & illegal, but hardly monstrous.
That said, any pervert who falls for their trap is a fucking idiot, and deserves to have their balls burned off, if only for the darwinism factor.
Not to my knowledge, no. This would be the reason why I said “of sorts”. Because the distinction between pedophile and ephebophile is just for nitpickery, as the legal age of consent in both cases is still above pedo/ephedophiles primary focus. Or is there some leeway given to people who do things with early teenagers as opposed to preteens?
You betcha. Nearly every jurisdiction has separate laws & punishment guidelines for victims above and under 13. And pedophilia is listed in the DSM-IV as an antisocial paraphilia, whereas ephebophilia is not.
Sorry, but I just can’t cotton to this media-driven hysteria which equates teenagers with helpless, crying toddlers. It’s ignorant, and it’s disrespectful to teenagers. (For cripes sake, some of TCAP’s faux victims would be legal in Canada!!) I have no love for ephebe’s, and yeah they have major issues, but I wouldn’t necessarily run them down with my car (whereas for pedos, just tell me where to aim…)
If this is true, then I was incorrect in my above post and should have said ephebophile. A term that I do know about and thanks in large part to this very here message board. I love you guys!
More seriously though, can you show me a cite? I don’t mean that in a confrontational manner. As you can see above, I didn’t know there is a legal separation of certain age groups for sex offenses and would just like to read more.
I wouldn’t try to run them down, but if they get in my way, they better move quick cuz I’m going to conveniently forget how to brake or steer.
And obviously no more should be said of pedophiles. My steering and acceleration will work just fine.
Sure, any sex offender registry will list specific offenses for crimes against children under 14 (not 13, my bad.) I’d link to the actual statutes themselves, but unfortunately, legal cites aren’t my forte.
If they’re too moronic to know that any kid in a sex chat room is certainly a cop, they’re likely too stupid to dodge.
What crime is it they committed? There are no underage children there. They are trapped by a police sting by an adult pretending to be an underage sex victim.
Would they have actually gone through with it ? To assume they all are serial rapists of children is going too far. Maybe some of them would have been scared away permanently. But once they are on TV their lives are ruined forever. I have mixed feelings about it. Real Police work should not be a TV show.
Now arresting people who have 'used a JCB digger to smash through the perimeter fence ’ and ‘attempted to smash their way into the display case using sledgehammers and a nail gun’ is obviously going to stand up in court.
Presumably proving that someone has sent sexual messages to a (supposed) child, asked to meet them without their parents present and then turned up is enough to convict?
So prison does happen, but I think light jail time and probation is more common. The DA in Murphy, Texas even declined to prosecute anyone caught on the show.
I fell pretty detached from the show not having kids, but I once made the mistake of watching a marathon of the show on MSNBC with a father of three young girls. He had never heard of the program before and was pretty pissed off to learn that no one in the episodes we saw spent any real time behind bars.
What bothers me most about the show is the way they bait the suspects. Yes, they all are skeevy individuals, but when a minor 13 years old consents to having an adult show up at his/her home for sex, you are getting a different kind of pervert than one who is likely to commit forcible rape. In my opinion, the latter sort are a bigger problem than the former.
One of my ex-girlfriends told me that at 15 she slept with a 21 year old. She had no regrets and was even somewhat proud of it. I thought it was disgusting on the guy’s part, yet in a society as sexually charged as ours, I bet my ex knew exactly what she was doing and what the ramifications might be. Individuals can certainly be sexually responsible at 13, too. I really don’t know what we should do about adults sleeping with consenting teenagers.
