Anti-pedophile activism encompasses opposition to pedophiles, pedophile advocacy groups, child sexual abuse, and child sexual abuse material.[citation needed]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/IMG_5774_-_Milano_-_Graffiti_antipedofili_in_via_laghetto_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto_-_21-2-2007.jpg/220px-IMG_5774_-_Milano_-_Graffiti_antipedofili_in_via_laghetto_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto_-_21-2-2007.jpg)
Background
editPedophilia was not seen as a widespread societal problem before the 1970s and the term was, until then, mostly confined to academic discussions, although male "pederasts" have sometimes been a focus of public anxiety.[1] During the 1970s, the topic of child sexual abuse began to be expanded by feminist thinkers,[2][3] and media coverage pedophilia began to increase amid the problematization of child pornography and homosexuality.[1]
Also in the 1970s, public attitudes regarding child sexual abuse began to shift, with principles of risk-management and retribution against offenders taking precedence over rehabilitation. This shift was also observed in the field of penology more broadly.[2][3] Starting in the 1980s, pedophiles began being seen as more violent, with links to sexual abuse networks, sexual assault and killings being made.[1]
Criminology researcher Amy Adler stated in 2001 that public concern regarding child sexual abuse was "a modern phenomenon that has grown significantly over the last two decades". Professor Philip Jenkins has described such concerns as cyclical and fluctuating widely throughout the 20th century in accordance with the changing roles of interest groups such as feminists, psychiatrists, politicians and child protection groups.[2] Some researchers, including Jenkins, have described modern concerns regarding pedophilia as a moral panic under Stanley Cohen's definition of the concept.[1]
With the popularization of the Internet, several anti-pedophile vigilante groups emerged seeking to combat child sex crimes. Such groups have used technology tools to engage in campaigns of public shaming and doxing with the goal producing effects including deterrence, punishment and systematic change.[4] Actions of citizen vigilantism has resulted in loss of life of some individuals accused of sexual crimes,[5][4] as well as humiliation and psychological trauma experienced by family members.[6]
Vigilantism against pedophiles has been generally positively received among the general public, but widely condemned by law-enforcement workers.[4][6] Pedophilia is one of the most rejected mental conditions. A German poll found that fourteen percent of its participants believed that people with pedophilia should better be dead even if they had not committed any sort of crime, another English-speaking poll found that 27% of participants agreed on the same idea.[7] Another 2014 study from the International Academy of Sex Research found similar results.[8] Although news outlets have routinely described child sex offenders as "pedophiles", pedophilia is a different concept from child sexual abuse.[9]
History
editOrganized social activism against child sexual molesters occurred in the 18th century, by the Society for the Reformation of Manners.[10]
In the Netherlands, the pro-pedophile activist group Vereniging Martijn has been protested against by the far right Nationale Alliantie.[11] In the UK, the far right National Front party was protesting in front of Paedophile Information Exchange conferences in the 1970s[12] and against the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal in 2014,[13] alongside EDL and BNP.[14]
In the United States
editAmerican sex offender registry and notification laws have been directly attributed to acts of vigilantism against alleged pedophiles and registrants, including harassment and life-threatening attacks. In the late 1990s, a New Jersey man fired five bullets at the house of a sex offender, narrowly missing another neighbor, after he was notified of the sex offender's presence in the neighborhood. In the state of Washington, 1993, a mob burned the home of a sex offender after the local sheriff distributed leaflets with the message which described him as an "extremely dangerous untreated sex offender with a very high probability for re-offense" who "has sadistic and deviant sexual fantasies which include torture, sexual assault, human sacrifice, bondage and the murder of young children". In September 1999, a mentally disabled Vietnamese refugee was beaten by a group of four vigilantes, who mistook him for a pedophile on the registry, after he was seen playing with neighborhood children. Hundreds of other instances of vigilantism caused by notification laws have been reported, including instances of misidentified individuals being attacked by vigilantes.[15]
To catch a predator
editIn 2004, investigative television series To Catch a Predator was launched on Dateline NBC. The show featured sting operations, set up in collaboration with vigilante group Perverted Justice and law-enforcement agencies, in which men who sought sexual relationships with children through the internet would be lured into a house, where they would be asked humiliating questions by the program's host Chris Hansen before being arrested by police officers.[16]
Florida State University history professor Paul Renfro stated that To Catch a Predator "shaped how people think about sexual violence in ways that we haven’t fully grappled with", depicting strangers as a threat, while in reality most cases of child sexual abuse involved a person known to the child. The show fueled the passage of the 2006 Adam Walsh Act, which made sex offender registries publicly searchable. There is little evidence that such registries are effective in deterring crime.[17]
Hansen described To Catch a Predator as a form of parallel journalism. Marsha Bartel, a former producer for Dateline, stated in a 2007 lawsuit that the organization "pays or otherwise reimburses law enforcement officials, trades its video services for information and for dramatically staged arrests, and illegally provides video feeds to prosecutors". The Poynter Institute criticized the show for its lack of ethical journalism, saying that "it's no longer a parallel investigation when the cops are basing their decisions to call in the SWAT team on the observations of the journalists".[18][19]
Suicide of Bill Conradt and lawsuit
editIn 2006, Bill Conradt, an assistant district attorney living in Dallas, Texas, was accused of having interacted with a person he believed to be an underage boy, including telephone contact and sending explicit images. Conradt eventually ceased contact and did not try to meet this decoy. Thus Dateline and law enforcement came to Conradt’s residence to apprehend him. The police broke entry, and upon encountering Conradt, he shot himself dead. Conradt's death resulted in the prosecutor refusing to indict any other Dateline suspects, citing a failure by amateurs to produce evidence as well as their undue influence on law enforcement. Dateline ceased making further stories of To Catch A Predator. Conradt's sister in July 2007 filed a wrongful death lawsuit against NBC Universal which was settled for US$ 105 million in June 2008.[20][16]
The federal judge who presided over the case stated that To Catch as Predator's operations created a "substantial risk of suicide" and described its conduct as "so outrageous and extreme that no civilized society should tolerate it."[8][21] He also stated that the show engaged "in tactics that were unnecessary and unwise, solely to generate more dramatic footage for a television show".[21]
Vigilante groups
editFollowing the cancellation of To Catch a Predator in 2007 and the spread of conspiracy theories about "grooming" and child sex-trafficking on the internet, several vigilante groups were established in the United States. NBC identified 30 groups in 2019, a subsequent research by the Washington Post found 160.[22][17] University of Winnipeg cultural criminologist Steven Kohm stated in 2019 that such groups have sought to restore the more emotional, punitive and participatory nature that the American criminal justice system had 100 years prior. He stated that the impulse behind those groups is liked to a sense of mistrust in authority and analogous to the same motivations of conspiratorial campaigns such as Qanon and Pizzagate, among others. Kohm described this impulse as "a mob-justice vigilante mentality".[17]
In the United Kingdom
editIn Britain, the number of anti-pedophile vigilante groups grew during the 2010s, reaching 191 five years after the release of The Paedophile Hunter in 2014. Such groups have been less burdened by legal regulations, which include the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, than official government investigators. Targets of vigilante groups have been subjected to physical violence and harassment, and some have died by suicide after being accused of sexual crimes. Family members of those targeted by vigilante groups have been documented to experience social ostracism, humiliation and psychological trauma. Anti-pedophile vigilante groups have been widely condemned by police, they have also been described as undermining police investigations due to improper handling of evidence. A 2019 BBC article stated that 60 percent of child sex offenses in the country have used evidence gathered by vigilante groups.[6][4]
A paper from the University of East Anglia states that pedophile hunters might "have the effect of unduly diverting criminal justice resources from sex offenders who pose a considerable risk to the public towards low-risk offenders, the so-called "low-hanging fruit", and that "Paedophile-hunting groups can circumvent procedural safeguards and regulations that exist to moderate state power and protect the human rights of those subject to a criminal process."[23]
Media activism
editPedophilia is discussed on a daily basis by the British press, usually under an emotive, generalized and fearful way, which is especially the case in tabloid media. Some tabloid headlines have included "Vile sickos skulking in high places" (by the Daily Mirror), "Paedo caught by perv site" (The Sun), "Lonely heart sicko was a paedo" (The Sun), "My brave girl caged a monster" (The Sun), "Paedos have dodgy wiring" (The Sun), and "Pervs on the loose" (Daily Star). Broadsheet publications have also used the same type of emotive language, although to a lesser extent, with pedophiles often being described as monsters and beasts. British newspapers have also reinforced the stranger danger myth. In wake of the murder of Sarah Payne in 2000, British tabloid News of the World launched several anti-pedophile campaigns arguing for stricter government regulations.[24]
Name and Shame campaign
editIn 2000, prominent British tabloid News of the World, owned by press magnate Rupert Murdoch, began running a campaign titled "Name and Shame", in which the newspaper published the identities and addresses of several men convicted of child sex crimes. Two weeks after its launch, several lynch-mob and firebomb attacks took place in eleven communities in England and Scotland. Most attacks targeted people wrongfully identified as sex offenders, including some who had similar names or looked similar to suspects depicted in the newspaper. In that period, a riot involving 150 people broke out in Plymouth, in which people carried signs with News of the World headlines, attacked the police and destroyed property. In one instance during the campaign, a 42-year-old pediatrician had her home attacked by vigilantes who mistook her professional title for the word "paedophile".[25][26]
The campaign was condemned by police officials and human rights groups, it was also criticized by Home Office minister Paul Boateng. Having promised to expose the names of 100,000 people, Name and Shame was shut down in August after identifying 82 individuals.[26]
In Russia
editIn 2012, Russian neo-Nazi Maxim Martsinkevich launched the Occupy Pedophilia project, in which neo-Nazi vigilantes would pose as young boys on the internet in order to lure adult men, who would then be made to indicate their identity and address in front of cameras. In some instances, vigilantes would write "Fuck LGBT" or draw the rainbow flag on the foreheads of their targets, who would sometimes also be shouted at, slapped, have their heads shaved or be forced to drink urine, among other forms of torture. Occupy pedophilia often conflated homosexuality with pedophilia.[27]
Groups
editThe Blue Angel Association
editA French group[28] who successfully sued Gabriel Matzneff in 2020.[29]
Perverted-Justice
editPerverted-Justice was an anti-pedophilia, anti-hebephilia, and anti-statutory rape organization with the stated mission to expose and convict adults who solicit and groom minors on the Internet. Perverted Justice had multiple issues with being able to supply chat log evidence in a manner that passes legal scrutiny.[30][31][32] Perverted Justice collaborated with the NBC television program Dateline in their segment To Catch A Predator, hosted by Chris Hansen, to lure alleged sexual predators to a sting house by interacting with them online and posing as minors.
Jewish Community Watch
editJewish Community Watch, a global New York City-based organization with an office in Israel, focusing on prevention of child sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community, received mixed support over their posting the names of suspected pedophiles on their main website. The column titled the "Wall of Shame" listed the names of individuals suspected of abuse, their photos and testimonies from alleged victims.[33]
Letzgo Hunting
editLetzgo Hunting is an Internet-based anti-paedophilia vigilante group based in Barwell, Leicestershire, England. A man died by suicide days after being accused and "named and shamed" of being a paedophile by the group.[34]
Others
editAnother initiative, Predator Hunter, headed by Wendell Kreuth, aims to track down and expose the pornography-related activities of alleged 'sexual predators', as disclosed in his interview with Minnesota Public Radio.[35][36] The activities of Predator Hunter in the previous years garnered more attention, particularly the actions of Bradley Willman, whose anti-pedophile activism is described below:
Between 1997 and 2001, Brad Willman was known as Omni-Potent, an Internet vigilante who would track pedophiles by spending 16-plus hours a day hacking into people's computers from his parents’ house in Langley, a suburban community just outside Vancouver. Ultimately, he was responsible for the arrests of about 40 pedophiles across Canada and the U.S. Willman's successful, albeit unpaid and short-lived venture as "Citizen Tipster," as he was known by police, is now over. But his activities have sparked intense debate over the legality of his tactics.[37][38]
He would verify where suspects were from, and send the information on to Predator-Hunter, an online pedophile watchdog group that would, in turn, send it to other sources to be verified before passing it on to police. "Parents in a number of countries, I think, owe OmniPotent a debt of gratitude for what he did," says Wendell Krueth, president of Predator-Hunter. The end justifying the means is a concept Predator-Hunter supports. "We don't tell people to go hack, but we consider whatever information we get worthy in taking down pedophiles," Krueth says.[39]
Silentlambs and LambsRoar are both web-based anti-pedophile groups that seek to protect children through education, to provide legal assistance, and to provide assistance to victims [survivors] who have been molested as children and silenced from speaking out or seeking proper assistance as directed by religious authorities. To date, most emphasis has been on abuse within the Jehovah's Witness community.[40]
In several instances, members of 4chan and Anonymous have been involved in drawing attention to or gathering evidence regarding suspected pedophiles on the Internet. Members of Anonymous were identified as responsible for the arrest of suspected pedophile Chris Forcand. They contacted the police after some members were "propositioned" by Forcand with "disgusting photos of himself".[41] Anonymous were described as "cyber-vigilantes who seek to out anyone who presents with a sexual interest in children".[42][43]
Anonymous, a hacktivist group, claimed to intrude on the various servers hosting child sexual abuse material resources and pull a various sensitive information—emails, forums' personal messages, credit card details, webserver logs etc. -- on the users of such websites.[44]
Many of these activist groups were inspired either directly or indirectly by the segment To Catch A Predator that was a part of Dateline on NBC with host Chris Hansen.
Creep Catchers refers to non-affiliated individuals and groups which operate in 15 cities across Canada, posing as children in chat rooms to sting, record and shame adults who try to meet them for sex.[45] POP Squad ("POP" standing for "Prey on Predators"), a Connecticut-based group, is one of several similar online groups operating in the United States.[46][47]
Wanted Pedo is the main French association struggling against paedophile networks. Their website have been suspended by justice[48] for exposing paedophile websites.
Predator Poachers, a Houston-based vigilante group, claimed that as of 2022 its activity had led to arrests in 27 U.S. states.[49] The group was responsible for exposing comedian and content creator Bryant Moreland, more commonly known by his online alias EDP445,[50] for allegedly talking to one of their decoys in 2021. The group was permanently banned from YouTube after the event due to policy violations.[50]
One group, Dads Against Predators [also known as DAP Inc or D.A.P] was founded in Ohio and appears to be active in a number of states, utilizing similar tactics to other groups in running 'sting operations' on online dating and social networking sites or applications. They have been criticized by law enforcement on several occasions[51] for the tactics used in their sting operations. DAP tends to be more aggressive when confronting alleged predators, berating them in public, causing a scene, and at times even fighting with or physically restraining the individuals they confront, though usually any physical contact is started first by the alleged predator. They have been widely criticized as utilizing unethical or even dangerous methods, and do not always involve law enforcement in their stings, as is usually done by other groups. In one particularly chaotic confrontation, one of the members of Dads Against Predators was shot inside a Target store located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.[52] According to the man alleged to have fired a round, three men confronted him inside of the store and he claims they began to assault him, during this fight he fired a single shot which struck Jay C. Carnicom of Fremont, Ohio before being disarmed by another member of the group. The bullet struck Carnicom in the leg, though apparently the wound was not fatal or particularly serious as Carnicom did not seek medical care until a day later. The three men who carried out this confrontation have had arrest warrants issued for them in North Carolina in connection to the fight.[53] Dads Against Predators have been trespassed from several retail chains as a result of their disruptive, boisterous and frequently violent confrontations. Dads Against Predators has also been accused of playing a role in at least three suicide deaths carried out by alleged predators who were confronted by D.A.P shortly before their deaths.[54] They have also been banned from YouTube, and upload their confrontations on alternative streaming platforms such as Rumble or BitChute.
A Michigan man from Pontiac named Robert Wayne Lee, 40, known under the alias 'Boopac Shakur' online, was shot and killed inside of a restaurant in Oakland County during a confrontation which started as the result of an online predator 'sting' operation. [55] Allegedly, when Lee confronted two men [17 and 18 years old] inside the restaurant, one of the men produced a knife and the other pulled a handgun after Lee struck one of the men. After the confrontation became physical, Lee was shot several times by the younger man and was transported to the hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries. Lee left behind two daughters and a son, whom he claimed inspired him to participate in his vigilante activities. Lee was well-known online for his aggressive vigilantism, frequently physically assaulting alleged predators, vandalizing their property or slashing tires on their vehicles so they could not leave the area. Funds were raised via GoFundMe to pay for his funeral costs. [56] The two men involved in the fatal fight and shooting were later tracked down and arrested.[57]
Criticism of tactics
editA representative of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Exploited Child Unit has stated that the NCMEC does not condone investigations by citizens because according to the NCMEC, those actions do not deter predators and can push the predators to move to other locations and become more effective at hiding their identities.[58] The Internet safety organization CyberAngels, an offshoot of the Guardian Angels echoes similar concerns.[58] Police officials in the past have been opposed to working with such groups, or have done so only reluctantly.[59]
Many of these activist groups have been accused by the media, law enforcement and the general public of resembling vigilante groups more so than activist groups or advocates. They have also been criticized for their tactics, some of which are viewed by many to be entrapment and many are criticized for providing improper or poor evidence, and some have been criticized for using violent behavior or coercion in their sting operations.
See also
edit- Anti-pornography movement
- Chris Forcand
- Ephebophilia
- Hebephilia
- To Catch a Predator – A Dateline NBC series that collaborated with Perverted-Justice
- John Wojnowski
- Maxim Martsinkevich
References
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{{cite news}}
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