Time for an Ethics Debate

Caught this on Wired News last month, and thought I'd share.

Perverted Justice is a group of volunteers who go out on the web in chat rooms, AIM, IRC, etc. and pose as children in an effort to lure child predators. When they do, they capture all of the predator's personal info and post it to the website.

Quote:

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Perverted Justice volunteer Frank Fencepost posed in a chat room as "Marquelle," a 13-year-old girl, and lured 29-year-old Adrian to his apartment for drinks. Before leaving the chat room, Marquelle requested that Adrian bring her a McDonald's meal. When Adrian showed up, Fencepost greeted him with a camera, a baseball bat and some harsh words.

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Read the two-part Wired article here:

Part One: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62650,00.html
Part Two: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62676,00.html

So... Ethical or Unethical?
Are these volunteers doing good, or just getting in the way of Law Enforcement?

Sounds kinda like vigalante justice to me. Why dont they just turn these people into the cops? As much as what they are doing is wrong, going after someone with a baseball bat is probably not the best answer, nor will it help the child molester.

It will help the child molester. He or she can say they was targeting what he thought was and adult fishing for kids as a defense. "I was collecting evidence."

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Originally posted here by RoadClosed
It will help the child molester. He or she can say they was targeting what he thought was and adult fishing for kids as a defense. "I was collecting evidence."

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Are you a lawyer by chance? :D

Nope, but I often wonder what would be so hard about!! My friend makes over 300k a year marketing his services.

You have to be very careful when considering vigalante action against people you think are paedophiles - often the wrong person is targetted. I remember last year one UK newspaper printed photos of people who were on the Sex Offenders' Register, and a mob went after some poor bloke who happened to look like one of the people mentioned in the newspaper.

well this is typical. the government doesn't care, they just want to 'nab' some ppl, so everyone thinks they are doing something to help us and keep us safe. they do that with drugs all the time, undercover agent sell to ppl (offer them drugs), then they bust them. :rolleyes: its like the hackers are rampant, but the government is more concerned with illegal downloading of music......but what is being done about hacking? well, let me see...all i see is alot of new software that needs to be bought, extra 'security' and protection for us, limiting our access to the internet....the gov couldn't control it so they'll just infect it.....

echocontrol: if htese dopes wanted to help they would trun over the info they had to the police insted of going to meet the guy themselfs.....one of these pedafial trapers are going to snare the wrong guy and end up dead real soon..they also possably screw up ongoing investagations into these people.

I can't wait 'til one of these guys shows up at an undercover police operation.

"Hi I'm Joe, I'm here to kick your ass, sicko!"

"Hi there, Joe! I'm Detective Bob! You're under arrest!"

It'd be more fun to kill them. Vigalante would help lessen the load in prisons and all that.

-Cheers-

Quote:

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Originally posted here by PM8228
It'd be more fun to kill them. Vigalante would help lessen the load in prisons and all that.

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And what happens when you find that the person you have just beaten to death with a baseball bat was someone who happened to look like the paedophile you were after?

I was reading a few of their conversions. I can't bare to witness what these 10 to 15 year old kids already know about adultery.

Quote:

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Originally posted here by PM8228
It'd be more fun to kill them. Vigalante would help lessen the load in prisons and all that.

-Cheers-

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Actually if anyone is going to die its usually the pedos and rapists that are the first to go. You usually think of these guys as being kinda weak considering the peaple they go after are ladies and children... they generally don't have the respect of lets say a drug dealer, thief, murderer, & (ect).

Here's a related story:

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Prosecutors said a Concord man charged with trying to murder seven sex offenders wanted to create a foundation to protect children through vigilante justice.

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Source:
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news...54/detail.html

the Art of ghettoness. I must have a mental disease. Maybe its gayness. Oh I forgot I'm a Mormon, I can't be gay. Must be something else