To Catch A Predator

To Catch A Predator

MSNBC has run a series of investigative reports in various parts of the country where decoys lure adult men over to have sex with underage girls and boys. I was watching some of the outtakes this evening, and it is tremendously sad. It is horrendous that so many guys show up, expecting to have sex with children--and really sad watching their reactions when they realize that instead of a child, there's an adult man there, asking them embarrassing questions about this. The excuses that they come up with to justify why this was okay, and that they weren't really planning to have sex (even though they have condoms in their pockets), are painful to watch.

I would like to think that knowing that stuff like this is going on would discourage people from doing this. Watching Rabbi David Kaye try to turn the tables on the reporter was astonishing.

I know that creeps like this were around fifty years ago. I am also aware of the claim that the widespread sexual repression of the Dark Ages (the 1950s) made these problems more common. If so, what explains today, when we as a society are about as far from sexual repression as a society can be?