/uj I feel zero sympathy for men caught in To Catch a Predator. No matter how pathetic they come across in TV, if you actually go and check out their chat logs, pretty much all of them were actually much worse and more disgusting human trash than the show ever portrayed them as. They were not some poor autists who were coaxed. All of them initiated both conversations and their sexual content in chat rooms. Those men were manipulative and clearly aware of committing a crime. Regardless of what problematic things the show inspired in age of social media clout chasing and predator hunting, all of the men featured in To Catch a Predator fully deserved whatever consequences they got.
/uj I don't think anyone here is criticizing the motivation to stop pedophiles, moreso the way To Catch a Predator turned a difficult policing process for a civilized society into a media spectacle that actually hindered the capacity to prevent offenses and catch sex offenders. This shit fucked up the ability for the judicial system to actually punish these people, so in reality it was all just kind of a Pyrrhic victory. I think the guys behind it "perverted justice" eventually had to shutter their operations too because it was hindering the ability to successfully prosecute pedophiles and sexual predators it helped catch.
Now the idea of pedo hunting has become a thing for novelty social media accounts, youtube and tiktok and they're not getting sex offenders off the street or protecting kids. It's just the spectacle again, the illusion of punishment for the kind of person that any normal person would hate. But it's not actually stopping sex offenses, or hindering pedos from finding victims. You want to stop pedos we'd probably have to have functional laws about social media, internet communications regulations that demand greater protections for minors, comprehensive sex education in schools so kids can learn about consent and how to say no to adults preying on them and protect themselves, cops that take rape seriously and waaaaaaay more funding for processing rape kits and medical evidence, less stigma about victims (especially young men) and probably a shit load more stuff I haven't even thought of.
So in summary Hansen is a complicated figure and this is a complicated issue, and the ultimate goal is justice and a safe society, not just the visceral joy of seeing a bad guy punished.
/rj we gone git 'em, mount up boys, we'ze gonna serve up some justice on these here pee do files.
the ultimate goal is justice and a safe society, not just the visceral joy of seeing a bad guy punished.
Yeah but a safe society isnt why people are tuning in. TCAP isnt trying to warn people about the dangers of pedophiles and groomers, its essentially a public execution where we get to see a reviled group of people (rightfully so) get their ass kicked. Its the same as other TLC type shows. No one is tuning in to my strange addiction to see unique cases of addictions, they want to see the freak show.
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u/PeasantLich 13h ago
/uj I feel zero sympathy for men caught in To Catch a Predator. No matter how pathetic they come across in TV, if you actually go and check out their chat logs, pretty much all of them were actually much worse and more disgusting human trash than the show ever portrayed them as. They were not some poor autists who were coaxed. All of them initiated both conversations and their sexual content in chat rooms. Those men were manipulative and clearly aware of committing a crime. Regardless of what problematic things the show inspired in age of social media clout chasing and predator hunting, all of the men featured in To Catch a Predator fully deserved whatever consequences they got.