Perverted justice?

Xavier Von Erck and his Southeast Portland-based online group Perverted Justice are perverted all right. Formed in 2003, the ironically named group, which is mostly staffed by volunteers, trolls internet chat rooms looking for “would be” pedophiles and induces them to commit a crime. The men are enticed into having sexually explicit conversations with what they believe to be underage girls. If the Perverted Justice member, posing as a minor, is good enough, they’ll convince the man to meet them at a decoy house where law enforcement agents will be waiting to arrest them.

There is no denying that pedophiles are terribly sick individuals who should be strongly punished for any offenses they commit. But where does one draw the line between a fantasy and an actual illegal offense? Perverted Justice, with the help of law enforcement agencies and recently NBC and other news organizations, has made that judgment call. Once a person-usually a man-intends to commit a lewd act upon a child, they are in violation of the law and can then be arrested and prosecuted. It seems a fair enough idea that pedophiles be apprehended before they have the opportunity to harm a child. But are the men that Perverted Justice is helping catch and prosecute actually criminals?

Many believe they are not. In a recent article in The Oregonian, Lynn Davenport, a former child protective services worker, suggests that few of the men that are caught through Perverted Justice have ever abused a minor. It is also suggested that these stings divert attention and resources away from real child abuse. So what it breaks down to is these men have pedophilic desires, they find themselves in a position to potentially act on them and are enticed to do so. But they never actually harm a child. One could assume that without provocation most of these men would never have acted upon their perverse attractions.

Law enforcement stings of this type are becoming more popular throughout our country. In some cities, there are officers who go undercover and pose as couples and park in front of a convenience mart or such and leave their car running while they go inside. Sometimes someone will take the bait and get into the car and attempt to drive off. This is when tens of police swarm and arrest the perpetrator.

It’s bad enough that people who are provoked into crime are being punished in place of the opposite. And these sorts of sting operations beg questions from the public like: Don’t our law enforcement agencies have anything better to do than to trick people into committing crimes? Aren’t there enough criminals out there, ones who don’t need to be tempted into crimes by undercover officers, to arrest?

The answer to those questions presumably is that stings of this type are feel-good operations for police. They get to go out there into the criminal element and get their hands dirty. They play the role and at the end of the day they’re the good guys. They can actively feel like they made a difference and were able to get one more criminal off the streets. Never mind they might have caught someone who may have gone their entire life without committing a crime of that nature. That without that one single perfect instance that the police have created and provided for them the person may have remained completely law-abiding. But since they actually did commit the crime, regardless of police involvement, they can be prosecuted.

Whether you agree with that reasoning or not there is something more sinister to Xavier Von Erck’s Perverted Justice group and their new affiliates NBC and MSNBC. With shows like To Catch A Predator the networks have proven that there is a profit to be made off of the depiction of the bait and then capture of these men. Even our local Fox affiliate news station here in Portland, Fox12, has teamed up with Perverted Justice to produce segments in their evening news that boils down to nothing short of petty harassment. In these segments called “Operation Cyber Sting” a Fox12 news crew will be waiting with police at a decoy home and when the man is arrested he is forced in front of bright lights and cameras as a reporter attempts to interview them about the offense. This is when the departure from criminal justice into irresponsible and distasteful entertainment occurs.

Whether Perverted Justice was started with the best intentions or not is irrelevant. Its message has been corrupted and perverted by money. Xavier Von Erck, a man who admits to not liking children at all, could be commended by his intentions but should instead be ashamed for what his organization, through affiliation with NBC and others, has devolved into. A profit should not be derived from the capture of criminals, especially when the moralistic lines can be so differently interpreted. These operations, in the views of many, are blurring the lines between true guilt and intention. Not only that but they compromise our justice system’s founding belief that one is innocent until proven guilty. Believe it or not there was a time when integrity used to be valued more highly than money. But those days are apparently long since dead.