Dateline, sexual predator bullshit Options

[impala454]

I'm watching Dateline NBC right now... they're doing a segment on sexual predators... something is really bugging me here. Here's the situation:

Cops + Dateline set up inside a nice house. The cops get online and start chatting with guys, posing as 13 year old girls wanting to have sex. They invite the guy over, have an 18 year old girl posing as the 13 year old, and this girl flirts with them when they get there until Dateline pops in, embarasses the guy, then the cops arrest the guy (who is 28). WTF!?! Now I'm not condoning 28 year olds having sex with 13 year olds, but this is bullshit... the guy never did anything illegal. It's still on NBC right now.

[Trespass]

step back for a second and tell me how much sense this makes. so does this make it ok for these guys to solicit 13 year old girls who claim they're 18 (which no doubt happens way more often)?
Oh I dunno, maybe because they showed about 10 guys get arrested, and 7 or so of em were of arab.
i'm perfectly calm. i like to post up topics that will get people discussing a controversial subject. i enjoy trying to get people to look at things from a perspective other than the norm, whether it's wrong or right, it makes people think. and vice versa, I enjoy reading this forum because it makes me look at topics from a different perspective (believe it or not I do give every idea a shot, even the lance conspiracy posts). it's interesting to see all the different bits of knowledge people bring to the table, and i think it's great when someone demands the source of someone's facts. honestly you could take the whole group of posters here and put together a hell of a debate team.

anyhow back on the subject:
did these guys deserve to be arrested? yeah probably. are they disgusting losers? most definitely. do I condone sex with minors? of course not (although it'd have been pretty shitty if they'd had a 17 yr old girl and lured a 19 yr old guy). It's just that the manner in which they operated this particular sting seemed as though those they were arresting hadn't broken any actual law (even the girl posing as the 13 yr old when the men showed up was 18). if there is in fact a law that says "it's illegal to solicit sex to someone who simply claims to be a minor" then there ya go.

You have to look at it in a cost/benifit analysis:
-This benifit to society is detering or catching would be rapists before they have the chance to actually commit a crime against an innocent. It takes away being able to seek out sex with children with complete safety because you can be caught like this.
-Cost to society is...? Not sure of a cost honestly. Not gonna catch innocent people since they would have been having sex w/ a 13 year old given the chance (as evidenced by the "chats"). Also, they took it from just a fantasy of talking to a 13 year old, to ACTUALLY trying to go through with the act. So im not sure the detriment to society... it doesn't let the men have the chance to commit the crime before catching them i guess?

Plus fairness-wise, these men don't get harsh punishments since they didn't actually commit the act. They get soliciting and lude conduct with a minor which puts them on the sex offenders list, but the punishment isn't that harsh... considering they now have a guy who's been caught twice on that show.

So the courts... and society, believe that the failure of these guys to ACTUALLY get the chance with a real minor is much less of a concern than protecting the children from these guys (Who WOULD commit the act had they been given the chance). For some reason i tend to agree