NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Perverted Justice

Perverted-Justice.com, abbreviated PeeJ, is an organization based in Portland, Oregon dedicated to identifying adults online seeking to have sexual encounters with minors in chat rooms. These adults frequently divulge information about themselves in an attempt to meet the child offline. PeeJ consists of around 40 adult volunteers who carry out sting operations by posing as minors in chat rooms. The volunteers set up profiles using usernames and pictures appropriate to such roles with the intent of attracting adults to approach them in chat rooms. After obtaining identifying information from these adults, who may offer their telephone numbers and other details in an attempt to arrange an offline meeting, PeeJ places the information, including their first names, telephone numbers, city of residence, photographs, and records of the sexual conversations on the PeeJ website. [2] Image File history File links Padlock. ... Moved from the Commons. ... Moved from the Commons. ... A screenshot of the Wikipedia website being displayed in the Mozilla web browser. ... Nickname: City of Roses, Stumptown, Bridgetown Motto: Official website: http://www. ... The Internet, or simply the Net, is the publicly accessible worldwide system of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using a standardized Internet Protocol (IP). ... Sex, in the scope of this article and category, refers to the male and female duality of biology and reproduction. ... In law, a person who is not yet a legal adult is known as a minor (known in some places as an infant or juvenile). ... A chat room is an online forum where people can chat online (talk by broadcasting messages to people on the same forum in real time). ... This group of political volunteers is working to promote voter turn-out. ... In law enforcement a sting operation is an operation designed to catch a person committing a crime, by means of deception. ... Online chat can refer to any kind of communication over the internet, but is primarily meant to refer to direct 1 on 1 chat or chat rooms, using tools such as instant messenger applicationsâ€”computer programs, Internet Relay Chat, talkers and possibly MUDs, MUCKs, MUSHes and MOOes. ... A telephone number is a string of decimal digits that uniquely indicates the network termination point. ... The front page of the English Wikipedia Website. ...

Set up in 2002 by an Oregon man, Phillip John Eide, [3] who uses the pseudonym Xavier Von Erck, the organization documents that its online operations have led to the exposure of over 764 people and the convictions of 43 as of January 22, 2006. [4] Eide is also credited with locating a 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped, raped, and tortured by a 47-year-old man she met online. [5] 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Official language(s) None Capital Salem Largest city Portland Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 9th 255,026 kmÂ² 420 km 580 km 2. ... A pseudonym (Greek: false name) is a fictitious name used by an individual as an alternative to his or her legal name. ... January 22 is the 22nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2006 (MMVI in Roman) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Iron Maiden of Nuremberg is an infamous and rarely used torture device. ... The Internet, or simply the Net, is the publicly accessible worldwide system of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using a standardized Internet Protocol (IP). ...

PeeJ has been criticized by the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), among others. Tina Schwartz, NCMEC director of communication, has said: "It's really not the safest, most effective way to combat this problem ... From what I've seen ... they embarrass the people, but I don't know that complete justice is ever served," (Roanoke Times, 22 January 2005). On the other side, PeeJ has been publicly thanked by Port Huron police chief William J. Corbett [6]. Embarrassment is an unpleasant emotional state experienced upon having a socially unacceptable act or condition witnessed by or revealed to others. ... Justice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... January 22 is the 22nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Eide, who said he got the idea for the website while watching men attempt to groom young girls in chat rooms in Oregon, says that PeeJ is a computer watchdog agency that works closely with law-enforcement agencies. "The media likes to use the term 'vigilante' because it gets attention, but we don't consider ourselves vigilantes. We cultivate cooperation with police and work within the law to get justice, not outside of the law." [7] Child grooming is a somewhat euphemistic term for the development of a relationship with a child by an adult for the purpose of engaging in sexual activities with the child. ... A watchdog originally referred to a dogs job, but now has been used in additional contexts with the same implication of watching or safeguarding: For the dogs job, see guard dog. ... Police officer of Greater Manchester Police, Great Britain Police forces are government organisations charged with the responsibility of maintaining law and order. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Law (from the Old Norse lagu) in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, intended to provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments of/for those who do...

Methods

PeeJ functions by supporting volunteers who act as bait in chat rooms where children and minors can typically be found. The administrators of the website say they don't initiate online contact with the men they pursue, and also refuse to act on tips from Internet users in order to reduce the risk that someone might use the website to take revenge. PeeJ also says it does not look for targets in adult chatrooms. Revenge or vengeance consists of retaliation against a person or group in response to perceived wrongdoing. ...

If a man starts chatting to the volunteer and turns the conversation to sex, the volunteer attempts to persuade the man to divulge personal details, particularly a telephone number, ostensibly needed to verify the man's identity so that a meeting can be arranged. This work is copyrighted. ... This work is copyrighted. ...

In the past, around this point the chatlog and details would be published on the website. However, in December 2003, PeeJ set up its Information First program, in which interested police departments could contact PeeJ, and any "busts" made within that department's jurisdiction would be sent straight to them without being posted to the website. [8] In the beginning of this program, PeeJ would not contact the police first, as officers were skeptical that PeeJ's information could be used in a court of law. This article is about courts of law. ...

However, ever since July 2004 when they made their first conviction, PeeJ switched to a policy of cold calling local police with the information they obtained. [9] If a government agency is interested (police, FBI, military CID, etc) then the chatlog and other information is not posted to the site until after a conviction has been reached. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Telemarketing. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of all British Police forces to which plain clothes detectives belong. ...

In both their Information First program and their cold calling policy, only if the agency is not interested at all does a log appear on the site, under the chain of thought that if the government is not interested in pursuing action, then family members and neighbors should be informed. (Logs are also posted after the person has been convicted in a court of law.)

In such cases, using the telephone number, PeeJ volunteers do a reverse-directory check to obtain the man's name, as well as checking on the Web for any other information they can find about him. They then post his name, address, and photograph if he has supplied one, on the PeeJ website, as well as the chat log: a record of the conversation he had with the volunteer. PeeJ subsequently contacts the man's family, friends, neighbors, and employer to alert them to the website posting. [10] Moscow phone book, 1930. ... This NeXTcube used by Berners-Lee at CERN became the first Web server. ... A family of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997 A family is a domestic group of people, or a number of domestic groups, typically affiliated by birth or marriage, or by comparable legal relationships including domestic partnership, adoption, surname and in some cases ownership (as was the case in the Roman... An interpersonal relationship is some relationship or connection between two people. ... Neighbourhood is also a term in topology. ... Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ...

Volunteers also take part in what PeeJ calls "media busts," where men are invited to a house with the promise of a sexual encounter with a minor. When the man arrives, he is greeted by a television news reporter. Peej teamed up with Dateline NBC in New York in November 2004 to conduct a large sting operation, or "group media bust," in which Dateline rented a house and wired it with hidden cameras, while PeeJ volunteers posed as minors in chat rooms, telling men who approached them that they were home alone. "Within hours there were men literally lining up at our door," Dateline reported. In two-and-a-half days, 18 men showed up at the house after making a date with a PeeJ volunteer. [11] Television news refers to the practice of disseminating current events via the media of television. ... A reporter is a type of journalist who researches and presents information in certain types of mass media. ... Dateline NBC (sometimes called just Dateline) is a US weekly television newsmagazine broadcast by NBC similar to ABCs 20/20 or CBSs 60 Minutes. ... Official language(s) None, English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 27th 141,205 kmÂ² 455 km 530 km 13. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In law enforcement a sting operation is an operation designed to catch a person committing a crime, by means of deception. ... Hidden cameras are still or video cameras that film people without their knowledge. ...

On November 4, 2005, Dateline aired another special which featured perverted-justice volunteers catching child predators. Among the men who responded: an ER doctor, a special education teacher and a rabbi.

A third special was aired on February 3, 2006; in this case, Riverside County, California, sheriff's deputies were contacted ahead of time, and waited outside the house to arrest the men as they left. [12] Fifty such men were arrested over the course of three days near the bait house, located in Mira Loma, California, with 49 of them arrested for felonies. Two men were detained and released pending investigation. [13] Eide says that this was the first group media bust with the full involvement of law enforcement. [14] Riverside County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of California, stretching from Orange County to the Colorado River, which is the border with Arizona. ... Mira Loma is a census-designated place located in Riverside County, California. ...

The organization offers men who have been exposed the right of reply, allowing them either to defend or apologize for their actions, and posting their responses. The organization also occasionally removes information from the website if the target shows, for example, that he is receiving counseling. In most litigation under the common law adversarial system the defendant, perhaps with the assistance of counsel, may allege or present defenses (or defences) in order to avoid liability, civil or criminal. ... The Apology is Platos version of the speech given by Socrates as he defends himself against the charges of being a man who corrupted the young, did not believe in the gods, and created new deities. ... Psychotherapy is a set of techniques believed to cure or to help solve behavioral and other psychological problems in humans. ...

All telephone numbers are removed from the main website pages after two months (though still available on PeeJ's forums) to avoid another case like that of the Milwaukee bank teller, reported by the Associated Press, who received a threatening phone call from a man who had obtained her number from the PeeJ website. The woman had never been online or even owned a computer, and was forced to change her number, which had previously been registered to the subject of a PeeJ sting. [15] This article is about Milwaukee in Wisconsin. ... Associated Press logo This article concerns the news service. ... A computer is a machine capable of undergoing complex calculations. ...

Currently, PeeJ only operates within the United States but plans to expand into Canada. [16]

Convictions

PeeJ's website documents 47 convictions attributed to its sting operations, with 33 of these taking place in 2005. These have led to successful prosecutions in Arkansas, four in California, Colorado, two in Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, three in New York, two in Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, two in Texas, four in Washington, and two in Wisconsin. [17] Convictions have included disorderly conduct, indecently soliciting a child, attempting to entice a juvenile to travel with intent to engage in sexual act, transporting child pornography, which traveled across state lines via computer and hence are under interstate commerce juristiction, and possession and dissemination of child pornography. 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Official language(s) English Capital Little Rock Largest city Little Rock Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 29th 137 732 kmÂ² 385 km 420 km 2. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 3rd 410,000 kmÂ² 402. ... Official language(s) English Capital Denver Largest city Denver Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 8th 269 837 kmÂ² 451 km 612 km 0. ... Official language(s) English Capital Hartford Largest city Bridgeport Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 48th 14,371 kmÂ² 113 km 177 km 12. ... Official language(s) English Capital Boise Largest city Boise Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 14th 216,632 kmÂ² 491 km 771 km 0. ... Official language(s) English Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 25th 149,998 kmÂ² 340 km 629 km 4. ... Official language(s) None Capital Topeka Largest city Wichita Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 15th 82,277 miÂ²; 213,096 kmÂ² 211 mi; 340 km 400 mi; 645 km 0. ... Official language(s) None Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 42nd 32,160 kmÂ² 145 km 400 km 21 37Â°53N to 39Â°43N 75Â°4W to 79Â°33W Population - Total (2000) - Density Ranked 19th 5,296,486 165... Official language(s) English de-facto Capital Lansing Largest city Detroit Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 11th 96,889 miÂ² 250,941 kmÂ² 239 miles 385 km 491 miles 790 km 41. ... Official language(s) None Capital Saint Paul Largest city Minneapolis Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 12th 225,365 kmÂ² 400 km 645 km 8. ... Official language(s) English Capital Lincoln Largest city Omaha Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 16th 200,520 kmÂ² 340 km 690 km 0. ... Official language(s) None Capital Carson City Largest city Las Vegas Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 7th 286,367 kmÂ² 519 km 788 km 0. ... Official language(s) None, English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 27th 141,205 kmÂ² 455 km 530 km 13. ... Official language(s) None Capital Columbus Largest city Columbus (largest metropolitan area is Cleveland) Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 34th 116,096 kmÂ² 355 km 355 km 8. ... Official language(s) None Capital Salem Largest city Portland Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 9th 255,026 kmÂ² 420 km 580 km 2. ... Official language(s) None Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 33rd 119,283 kmÂ² 255 km 455 km 2. ... Official language(s) None Capital Providence Largest city Providence Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 50th 4,005 kmÂ² 50 km 65 km 32. ... Official language(s) English Capital Columbia Largest city Columbia Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 40th 82,965 kmÂ² 320 km 420 km 6 32Â°430N to 35Â°12N 78Â°030W to 83Â°20W Population - Total (2000) - Density Ranked 26th 4,012... Official language(s) None. ... Official language(s) None Capital Olympia Largest city Seattle Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 18th 184,824 kmÂ² 385 km 580 km 6. ... Official language(s) None Capital Madison Largest city Milwaukee Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 23rd 169,790 kmÂ² 420 km 500 km 17 42Â°30N to 47Â°3N 86Â°49W to 92Â°54W Population - Total (2000) - Density Ranked 18th 5,453,896 38. ... In the criminal law of the United States of America, disorderly conduct is a name given to a rather ill defined crime. ... The term child pornography (sometimes referred to as CP, child porn, or kiddie porn) generally refers to pornography featuring one or more children; however, a precise definition can be elusive, as the terms pornography and child vary in definition according to region and country. ...

The organization has formed relationships with local police agencies around the U.S., and with the military police, who have proceeded with courts-martial on the basis of PeeJ chat logs. Military police (MPs) are the police of a military organization, generally concerning themselves with law enforcement and security. ... A court-martial (plural courts-martial) is a military court that determines punishments for members of the military subject to military law. ...

PeeJ established its "Information First" police program in December 2003, in which local police departments make arrangements to have the chat logs handed to them for follow up before being posted on the PeeJ website, in order to safeguard potential prosecutions. Peej has also worked in conjunction with the ChildSeek Network, Counter Pedophilia Investigative Unit, and PoliceWorld.net. 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Criminal law (also known as penal law) is the body of law that regulates governmental sanctions (such as imprisonment and/or fines) as retaliation for crimes against the social order. ...

In September 2004, Eide helped locate a 14-year-old girl from Camas, Washington, who had been missing from her foster home for almost two weeks. Local detectives were unable to follow leads on the girl's computer, citing lack of knowledge and resources. The girl's mother believed the computer might hold the key to the girl's location and contacted Eide, who noticed that the girl had logged in several times to her Yahoo! account, only to log out again. Eide was able to obtain the IP address of the computer the girl had logged in from; using this, the Internet Service Provider located the address. When police arrived at the house, they found the girl half-naked and lying in the foetal position, with her hair cut and dyed, in a darkened room containing a video camera and restraining devices. She had met her 47-year-old kidnapper, who was raping her when the police knocked on the door, in a chat room. He was subsequently charged with child rape and unlawful imprisonment. [18] [19] [20] Camas is located at 45Â°3528 North, 122Â°2444 West (45. ... Foster care is a system by which adults care for minor children who are not able to live with their biological parents. ... A login (also log in, log on, signon, sign on) is the process of accessing a computer system by identification of the user in order to obtain credentials to permit access. ... It has been suggested that Yahoo! Photos be merged into this article or section. ... An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique number that devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard. ... An Internet service provider (ISP, also called Internet access provider) is a business or organization that offers users access to the Internet and related services. ... Fetal position is a medical term used to describe the positioning of the body of a prenatal fetus as it develops. ... A video camera can be classified two ways: Professional video cameras, such as those used in television production Camcorders used by amateurs This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Criticism

Scott Morrow of Corrupted-Justice.com, a website set up to challenge PeeJ, told ABC News there is currently no way to hold PeeJ accountable for mistakes. "When you're running an organization or running a group of people with the potential to do as much damage to people's lives as this does, I think there also has to be some accountability." [21] Accountability would take the form of legal action against the organization. However, the only known instance of legal action against PeeJ was an application for a restraining order, issuing out of a complaint of harassment, against two PeeJ volunteers in Minnesota. The judge found the suit entirely without merit for reasons of jurisdictional issues, the matter of unenforceability, and because there was "no reasonable grounds" to believe harassment by Perverted-Justice.com volunteers took place. [22] [23] Accountability has several meanings. ... An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that either prohibits or compels (enjoins or restrains) a party from continuing a particular activity. ... Harassment refers to a wide spectrum of offensive behavior. ...

Lee Tien, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is quoted as being concerned that PeeJ could send real predators into hiding [24]. PeeJ's response is that this is in fact their goal, to have real predators hide away from the places that kids go. Eide likens this to putting up a Community Watch sign at a local playground, which could be argued to discourage predators from kidnapping children there. [25] Tien also argued that chat transcripts can be easily doctored. In order to bolster credability, PeeJ has implemented a number of safeguards to prevent this from happening, including routing all chats through an encrypted proxy server that mirrors the data. This system has held up in court. The EFF uses the blue ribbon as symbolism for their Free Speech defense. ... A proxy server is a computer network service that allows clients to make indirect network connections to other network services. ...

Some law-enforcement agencies have also stated that, while they appreciate PeeJ's mission, they do not agree with some of its practices. In a December 2004 article in the New York Sun, Bradley Russ, the training director for the federal Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, which employs about 200 federal agents nationwide, said PeeJ's tactics sometimes run counter to their standards. For instance, Russ said, by accepting child pornography from their "busts" to bolster a potential legal case, PeeJ volunteers are themselves in possession of unlawful images. He said federal authorities have begun considering whether to seize PeeJ contributors' computers. "It's a noble effort gone too far," Russ told the newspaper. He also said the group can make it more difficult for law enforcement to prosecute cases they present because those cases can be considered tainted by entrapment claims. The modern New York Sun is a daily newspaper published at New York City which debuted April 16, 2002. ... The term child pornography (sometimes referred to as CP, child porn, or kiddie porn) generally refers to pornography featuring one or more children; however, a precise definition can be elusive, as the terms pornography and child vary in definition according to region and country. ... In jurisprudence, entrapment is a procedural defense by which a defendant may argue that they should not be held criminally liable for actions which broke the law, because they were induced (or entrapped) by the police to commit said acts. ...

Additionally, PeeJ replies that, "No officer we've worked with has bashed us. No officer who has made an arrest hand-in-hand with Perverted-Justice.com has raised a voice against us." [26] Furthermore, they consider their methods to be far from entrapment, arguing that they initiate nothing, and instead wait for their target to come to them, a claim which has been agreed on by several courts. [27] No case brought to court so far has had any complications with regards to entrapment claims.

As to the reports on child pornography, PeeJ states that when sent child pornography against their will, they "immediately report it to the police and without fail." Furthermore, every time this has happened has resulted in a conviction against the one sending the pornography, not against PeeJ. [28]

Morrow has also criticized PeeJ as not respecting the legal presumption that all people are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, characterizing their tactics as "vigilantism" and "terrorization".[29] Presumption of innocence is a legal right that the accused enjoys in criminal trials in many modern nations. ...

References

August 23 is the 235th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (236th in leap years), with 130 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... January 22 is the 22nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... October 13 is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... January 10 is the 10th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... September 29 is the 272nd day of the year (273rd in leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 29 is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 2 days remaining. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... May 11 is the 131st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (132nd in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 11 is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 50 days remaining. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... February 4 is the 35th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... September 13 is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... September 14 is the 257th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (258th in leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 15 is the 166th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (167th in leap years), with 199 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 15 is the 227th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (228th in leap years), with 138 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... CKNW is the leading talk radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia. ... August is the eighth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Contents

Methods

Convictions

Criticism

References

Further reading

Web sites

Specific articles

Contents

Methods GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Convictions

Criticism

References

Further reading

Web sites

Specific articles

Methods