Undercover Police: Hunting Paedophiles

[MonicaGellerBing]

Channel 4 now. Anyone watching? I'm finding it really hard to watch and listen to. How the undercover police do that job talking to perverts all day using that language I don't know, what an amazing job they do though.

It's really hard to watch but I want to see the conclusion of the man they've arrested.

You can't rehabilitate these people.

@Soubriquet I'm so sorry that happened to you. It's awful when you have a realisation like that... something you were unaware of until years later, something or someone tells you it was exceptionally wrong.

If there's no convincing evidence that they can be rehabilitated, and we can't afford to lock them all up for any amount of time (literally don't have the space or money) and if we're a civilised society that doesn't kill people (or we have the death penalty but can't afford to kill that many people every year)...

...We're left with the question of what do we do?

Does surveillance technology offer a solution? Some kind of tagging and monitoring system?

Is that even affordable though?

A lot of them are under surveillance but it won't make much difference in court; there's still an issue with poor sentencing guidelines and lack of spaces for the literally hundreds of thousands of them in the country.

I dont think the death penalty would do anything. If anything it could make things worse...

I agree the criminal justice system needs an overhaul. But the death penalty is not the answer. People who offend like this will not be deterred by risking their lives. If anything it might make the crimes they commit more alluring and exciting. More forbidden.

I think they would be more likely to kill their victims after the rape and abuse, if the death penalty were reinstated.

I speak too as a survivor of child sexual abuse at 6, groomed at 14 and sexual assault in my 20s. The death penalty would purely serve as a way to save space in the prisons. And that doesn't seem like a good enough reason to end someone life tbh. I have no idea what the solution could be though. Rehabilitation seems pointless.

Like @PlinkPlink I cannot condone a death penalty for any crime.

In terms of surveillance are they already wearing tags then?

@Handsoffstrikesagain

Agree with you. If an offender is released and then even looks in the direction of a kid, then that is not acceptable. They should not be allowed to get away with it once let alone multiple times. The price is too high to pay to
Allow those people the opportunity to harm
More than one child

@Handsoffstrikesagain partly the practical and systemic flaws in the system - there has always been miscarriages of justice and it is misapplied to people who don’t look like me (ie those who aren’t white).

And partly philosophical. I don’t think that state sanctioned killing is something we should aspire to. I believe we should be better than that.

I cannot fathom the logic of why someone who we know cannot be rehabilitated and who poses a danger to society can be in and out of prison like its a bloody revolving door. All I know is, we are failing children.

I agree completely.
And no worries, I disclosed a bit too much about my childhood and deleted it.

It is completely horrendous and I agree that any way of increasing awareness is good.

There does, however, need to be a discussion about how to better effectively manage these offenders. In 2019 the average prison place cost over £38,000 per year. So by very basic maths that 4 and a half year sentence cost the taxpayer over £170,000. Not including all police and court costs. There is no reparation to the victims that I know of.

In order to change the system that isn't working there needs to be a credible be alternative plan that is able to be funded.

That should most definitely, in my opinion, include a comprehensive mental health support system for the victims any time they need it for the whole of their lives.

It is really hard. I would say it doesn't matter how much it costs, if it prevents children from suffering abuse then it is worth it. But I know that's not realistic.

But it would have a longer knock on effect. We know that children who suffer abuse are more likely to grow up to abuse other children. So every child saved/prevented from experiencing abuse is potentially one fewer future child abuser. I know of course not all abuse victims will go on to abuse children, but if one abuser abuses several children, and only one of those goes on to be an abuser themselves and abuses several more children - it just multiplies the harm. And although not all abuse victims become violent as a result there is other damage that can be done - drug addiction for example as a method of coping with the trauma. And sometimes addiction can become complicit in this cycle as somebody who is addicted will sometimes do anything to secure their next fix including allowing their children to be abused - child abusers take advantage of people in this situation.

As well as trying to prevent offenders from reoffending there must be adequate support for victims in order to help break the cycle. I don't think that currently exists either.

But just to put those figures into context - total MP expenses in 2019-2020 were £127,616,908.

We spend that much on politicians (which doesn't include their pay), we could lock up 3,272 child sex offenders per year for the same amount of money. £39,000 per year sounds like a lot but when you're talking national scale budgeting, it's not really easy to put figures into context.

I know it's not really as simple as that, as depends on space in facilities etc. And 3,000 isn't a dent in 100,000 or 300,000 or whatever it was.

Maybe there could be special villages where children aren't allowed in and they aren't allowed out, but they could do ordinary jobs etc there. Would be a bit weird and dystopian. And I suppose there would still be the problem of them accessing the internet, and vigilantes attacking the village or boycotting the products produced there.

3rd episode is on now. I'm bringing myself to watch this.

Disgusts me how uncomfortable they are when they are arrested. Not uncomfortable when you were grooming were you!

look at him completley took the wind out of his sails,good

Pretend fainting ffs.

In that moment... His life is OVER.
A teaching assistant also. Unforgiveable.

Bastard is married as well. His poor wife/husband