Good intentions lead to a story

The newsman who shows up in lieu of the '14-yr-old girl' says he's amazed that many of the offenders know about the show, and sometimes are heard wondering if the house is a setup!
Very few are stopped from preying by anything less than being in jail.

But I think it is sleazy. It is good that these people get caught, but to make an entertainment show out of it is slimely. I know that they call it either "news" or "investigative", but when it is on a weekly basis, it's slimey

There is a voyeuristic quality to these shows I find distasteful. It reminds me of accounts from the 18th,19th, and even 20th centuries when the emerging middle, and upper class society went on tours of jails and insane asylums for the pleasure of viewing the perverted side of human nature.

leverage that permits the expenditure that brings out the perps. Most police depts. can't fund operations like that.

As to the level of 'perpishness': One show (maybe the NBC one) featured a recent or current Miss America, whose "platform" included a desire to attack the molestation problem. They showed her pretending to be "prey", and she said it was nerve-wracking because of the language she had to put up with. IOW, most of these guys are serious threats to humans.
HOWEVER, now it seems that some were entrapped- that is, not necessarily a serious threat, but their lives will be [unfairly] changed the same as a serial rapist. And it seems now that many of those arrested, many of them in the serious threat category, will walk.

"Preview post" not working here or on C|net; please excuse any errors.

Not surprised by that one, though.

many of their catches are very familiar with the program. Why, then, did they come to a house that has "NBC sting" written all over it? It's the compulsion you mentioned.

Incurable is a strong word; there are exceptions, but not many.

America's Most Wanted rarely if ever uses stings; it's more of an electronic, worldwide 'wanted poster'. BTW the genesis was a child abduction - that of the son of the founder and host, John Walsh.

It isn't the entertainment that makes it a "bad" show IMO, it's the potential results. Results whose potentiality has now been realized: Guilty ones will walk because of sloppy police work.

I don't know if Cops has been a deterrent in any significant way; perhaps it has, but no one has studied it. I saw a repeat just the other night that addresses your concerns: A man's wife was killed by a reckless driver; his two daughters survived. The camera stayed with him as he learned the news, and all the way to the hospital with the daughters. At the end a graphic explained why: None of the riders were wearing seat belts, and the man agreed to let Cops use all the footage as a cautionary tale. (And that poor grey-headed sergeant who had to break the news - hard to watch.)

So far, I think, the NBC show has had more wins than losses (perps sentenced vs. perps walking), but of course the suicide can't be quantified. That lawsuit, by the daughter of the dead man, will certainly settle some issues and either put the show off the air or make it more genuinely useful in addressing a very serious problem.

I'm glad I was able to hip you to some of the world outside Law & Order. We're big fans of that here (especially Vincent D'Onofrio), except that the SVU scripts are getting more extreme, for no good reason we can see except ratings. **** Wolf always hires excellent actors and gives them a loose rein. But for a series that outdoes L&N and the CSI stuff (which I detest as art, entertainment, science, and procedurals), try a Canadian series called DaVinci's Inquest. The first season is on DVD and subsequent ones are on YouTube.

I usually get the impression he's a dumb one.