bobandcarole wrote:
> Another reason we should just shoot them.
>
>
>
> TUNNEL VISION - Pathology of a pedophile: Experts say sexual deviants
> often aren't deterred by consequences
>
>
> Seized computers will be analyzed as part of "Operation Trenchcoat" in
> which 11 alleged sexual predators were nabbed. (GREG DERR/The Patriot
> Ledger)
> By JOHN ZAREMBA
> The Patriot Ledger
>
> Nine men had just been paraded in front of a judge and charged with
> trying to solicit children for sex online. Their faces were all over TV
> and the newspapers, and so were the prosecutors' graphic descriptions
> of their conversations with undercover police.
>
> To top it off, the district attorney made a bold statement that last
> weekend's roundup should instill fear in Internet predators: The
> children they think they are courting may well be police officers.
>
> The warning was ignored.
>
> Within hours of the DA's statement, men all over Massachusetts were
> logging on to their computers and falling for the same trap.
>
> Cognitive distortion
>
> Experts say sexual deviants' desires are so strong that they lapse
> into a myopic frenzy when they think they've found a victim. Either
> they don't really believe the person on the other end of the
> conversation could be a police officer, or they simply don't care.
>
> ''He centers on the individual. His fantasy's going. His
> heart's beating. He has tunnel vision,'' said Jim McLaughlin, a
> detective in the Keene, N.H., police department who is a nationally
> recognized expert on crimes of child exploitation. ''They have
> what's called cognitive distortion. Some people call them thinking
> errors ... where they can basically rationalize or justify
> behavior.''
>
> This past week, local police arrested 11 men who they say were intent
> on having sex with the children they thought they were talking to
> online. Through the media, the task force did its best to make sure
> everyone in greater Boston knew about it.
>
> Which has left Melissa Marino, a Plymouth County deputy sheriff who
> helped execute the busts, puzzled as to why her 13-year-old online
> alter-ego is still getting so much attention from older men.
>
> ''People still approach us,'' Marino said. ''It's
> amazing. It completely is amazing.''
>
> Impulse over intelligence
>
> McLaughlin does not find that so surprising. In the 10 years he has
> spent doing online police work, he has rarely found a sexual predator
> who is scared off by the prospect of arrest, jail time and the ensuing
> embarrassment.
>
> He recalled a case where he was playing the part of a 14-year-old boy
> and was being courted by a Minnesota man who was about to make the
> journey to New Hampshire to meet him.
>
> The man had done some research on the town of Keene and came across Web
> sites that heralded McLaughlin's work catching Internet pedophiles.
> The man mentioned McLaughlin by name and asked the boy to make sure the
> detective didn't follow him to their meeting place.
>
> ''These are educated people,'' McLaughlin said. ''But the
> pathology renders all that education and intelligence useless.''
>
> Over the years, McLaughlin has used the same online screen name, and
> some have caught on. Several times, he has been online and a chat-room
> member recognized him and announced that there was a police officer in
> the room.
>
> Even that didn't stop people from approaching him.
>
> ''Other people in the room would initiate chat with me and ask if
> it was true,'' he said. ''I would tell them it wasn't, we
> would engage in conversation and I would arrest them.''
>
> The limit of scare tactics
>
> Local police say they do not expect to deter legitimately ill men;
> rather, they say they hope to scare away compulsives and
> thrill-seekers.
>
> Their efforts will frighten some.
>
> But only some.
>
> ''Some people aren't able to control that impulse - 'I'm
> going to be lucky. I'm going to get the one that isn't (a police
> officer'),'' said Craig Latham, a Natick psychologist who treats
> sex offenders.
>
> For those who can resist, he said, ''the question is whether
> they're going to go somewhere else'' to find a victim.
>
> It's possible, McLaughlin says. The Internet has afforded sexual
> deviants a sense of security. In Keene at least, reports of indecent
> exposure have dropped by about 25 percent in the past 25 years, as home
> computers have become increasingly more common.
>
> ''We've seen an incredible shift of behavior that corresponds
> with the number of people using the Internet,'' he said.
>
> As police intensify the type of undercover sting that resulted in last
> weekend's arrest, they hope to shatter the illusion that the Internet
> is a safe stalking ground.
>
> Asked at a press conference following the men's arraignments whether
> he thinks the sweep will throw a scare into others like them, Plymouth
> District Attorney Timothy Cruz responded: ''I always hope so. But I
> think it's something where you have to persevere.''
>
> McLaughlin is convinced fear won't keep any of his offenders away,
> but he, too, will keep trying.
>
> ''I would be willing to do an experiment. We'll meet with these
> guys some place and on every entrance of the building we'll put signs
> that say pedophiles arrested here,'' he said.
>
> ''They'd drive right by the sign. They'd probably park under
> it.''
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