I think you're thinking of entrapment, when a police officer coerces someone into doing something illegal and then arrests them for it. Entrapment is a court defense, not a law in the usual sense of the word. Pedophiles caught in sting operations rarely get off on entrapment defenses, because the cops in this instance aren't coercing anyone into anything--they're laying bait online and letting people come to them.
And in the case of To Catch a Predator, it's even MORE irrelevant, since non-police citizens CAN'T do entrapment. It literally only applies if the person doing it is a cop, and those on the show weren't themselves police.
literalstardust t1_iycz048 wrote
Reply to ELI5: To catch a predator case legality? by Appropriate-Job-8792
I think you're thinking of entrapment, when a police officer coerces someone into doing something illegal and then arrests them for it. Entrapment is a court defense, not a law in the usual sense of the word. Pedophiles caught in sting operations rarely get off on entrapment defenses, because the cops in this instance aren't coercing anyone into anything--they're laying bait online and letting people come to them.
And in the case of To Catch a Predator, it's even MORE irrelevant, since non-police citizens CAN'T do entrapment. It literally only applies if the person doing it is a cop, and those on the show weren't themselves police.