Excellent 3-Part Article
Todd Krysiak of the Portage Daily Register has written an in-depth 3-part series that examines the use of undercover police to arrest suspected pedophiles who travel to meet the underage children they believe they have met online.
Right up our alley!
You can read Part I, Part II and Part III here… Each one is very-well done.
Using the Columbus (Wisconsin) Police Department as the subject to initiate discussion, Part I looks at the question are the tectical approaches progressive or entrapment. A debate that, sure, can be formed – but who is going to defend the offenders that do show up at a house truly hoping to have sex with a child/teen? If it’s a matter of picking the side of a police officer lying and posing as a young girl OR an adult male trying to have sex with that “young girl,” which would you chose?
Do two wrongs make a right? No, but sometimes you have to play bad to catch evil.
Part II takes a look at how long it takes for an explicit sexual discussion to take place when a “15-year-old” girl enters a chatroom. It’s pretty shocking and leads back into whether the tactic can be considered entrapment. An arrested individual’s attorney will first look at the chat conversations and figure out how the arrested got to the point where they crossed the line — whether they crossed it themselves or whether they were pulled across it.
Again, who’s side are you going to take? But knowing that chat records will be used in court, officers usually play it safe and wait to be approached and questioned by the predators. It doesn’t take long for something to happen either…
The final part, Part III, asks Are online predators pedophiles? What this question examines is the difference of someone trying to have sex with a 4-ft-tall, 9-year-old girl… or a “voluptuous 14- or 15-year-old girl.”
Is there a difference? A source in the article notes that the 9-year-old chasers are pedophiles, where as the guys chasing the teens are just pursuing the “Brittney Spears” image that the music industry flaunted and continues to do so with teen pop stars.
That may be true, but I have a hard time making one of the crimes lesser than the other.
I encourage all to read the articles and comment… what do you feel about these issues?
