The big question that Predators raises isn't whether "To Catch a Predator," a relatively low-budget television show with a surprisingly enormous cultural impact, actually accomplished anything. Director David Osit has a personal reason for believing that, in the grand scheme of fighting child sexual abuse, it didn't, and when the filmmaker reveals that reason during an interview with an ethnologist, the impact is especially powerful.
The ethnologist's reaction is noteworthy. Osit has enlisted him to observe and analyze footage from the television show and the way it became a bizarre cultural phenomenon. Mark de Rond listens to Osit, takes in the director's story, and before offering any further reflections on how this man's experience fits into his own views on the show, he shows him empathy.
Director: David Osit
Stars: Mark de Rond, Dani Jayden, Casey Mauro
After seeing so much footage of potential sexual predators attempting to abuse a child, and of other people finding pleasure or even humor in the revelation that these encounters are part of a sting operation, the simple decency displayed in that moment between de Rond and Osit is all the more moving. At its core, this is a documentary about how people can dehumanize one another, whether it's an adult seeking out a child online with the sole purpose of abusing them, or a television personality playing a twisted game with someone they've supposedly caught in the act of attempting to commit a heinous crime.
This doesn't mean that both actions are equally immoral, of course, but they somehow seem to stem from the same kind of thinking. The predator doesn't see the child as a person, but simply as a target for abuse, and the people filming that alleged predator also don't see the future defendant as a person, but only as a target for a process of humiliation that will be viewed by millions on television.
Humanizing those people in any way, de Rond argues, would ruin the purpose and appeal of "To Catch a Predator," and doesn't that say everything about the show? It reduces the actual process of justice to a single moment, while at the same time, in a very real way, minimizing the seriousness of the crimes the show supposedly aims to stop. If these people are as dangerous as the show wants us to believe, why do they turn them and the whole situation into a kind of sick joke?
The film raises these and many other questions about the show, its legacy, its imitators, and ultimately, its host. That would be Chris Hansen, who became a celebrity solely for the straightforward—or, if these operations are perceived as jokes, deadpan—way he confronted potential sexual predators. "Have a seat," he would say, after an actor playing a minor left the room, and the phrase became a catchphrase. Another famous line came after his questioning, which, as some point out, wasn't his role in those circumstances. "You can go," Hansen would say, with no small amount of irony, because police officers were waiting around the corner or outside the house to arrest the person.
It all seemed very legitimate, but Osit speaks with police detectives who questioned the show's relationship with law enforcement at the time or have questioned it since. Could any of the show's footage be used as evidence in a trial? Wasn't the entire operation, in which an organization used online chat rooms and other forums to lure potential predators into a compromising situation, a form of entrapment? Some of the cases stemming from the show were dismissed in court because there simply wasn't enough solid evidence to secure a conviction. If so many of these operations failed to achieve that basic goal, had it really served any useful purpose for society?
Osit examines the show, points out its obvious flaws, and uses previously unseen footage to make even a hard-line retired prosecutor completely reconsider his initial statement that, given the chance, he would have shot and killed any of these alleged predators without hesitation. After seeing one of the men arrested for soliciting a minor break down during a police interrogation, this former prosecutor suddenly wonders if psychological help could change that man's life. A radical change of heart, considering he previously believed someone like that should be killed without a second thought.
In the nearly two decades since new episodes of "To Catch a Predator" aired, there has been a rise in internet personalities trying to make a career using similar tactics.
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