Resumen de Internet traps and the creation of linguistic crimes: Perverted Justice as broadcast entertaiment
Ronald R. Butters, Philip M. Carter, Tyler Kendall
Our paper builds upon the standard forensic linguistic methodology used for analysis of surreptitiously recorded evidence used in 'language crimes' prosecutions. Here we evaluate prosecutorial allegations about Instant Message exchanges between an unsuspecting young man and an adult female who was pretending to be a I3-year-old girl. The case, which led to the conviction of the accused for a felony sex crime, is one of hundreds of 'mark-and-decoy' IM conversations instigated by agents of Perverted Justice, a private, non-governmental organisation affiliated with no official lawenforcement agency but that is dedicated to the exposure, arrest, and conviction of 'sexual predators'. The linguistic issues centre upon the concept of enticement; under American law, an entrapment defence is possible only if the decoys have been employed by law-enforcement officers. The defence contended, however, that the 'enticement' came primarily from the decoy, who pursued the mark persistently. Despite the outcome of the case, the linguistic evidence supports the view that the crime was, in effect, created by the agents of Perverted Justice rather than by the accused.
