What the cops are doing here is not entrapment.
"Entrapment is a legal remedy to criminal charges in Canada based on the conduct of the police before or during their interaction with the accused. Entrapment occurs when a police officer or police agent provokes, entices, or coerces an individual into committing a crime they would otherwise have been unlikely to commit. When police tempt someone into committing a criminal offence without a reasonable suspicion that the person is involved in criminal activity, or when they go a step further and induce someone into committing a criminal offence, they commit entrapment."
Police putting an expensive unlocked bike at a location where bike thefts are known to be a problem and then arresting someone who decided to steal the bike, is not entrapment.
However, a cop approaching some random person who may look like they are destitute or otherwise vulnerable and asking them to go steal that bike while you'll keep a lookout for cops and pay them $50 to steal the bike for you... that's entrapment.
1. Posting an ad in the leolist escorts section which advertises a criminal activity (prostitution) is a passive action and only attracts a person who is already actively seeking out the possibility of engaging in an illegal act. Prostitution is still a criminal activity under Canadian law.
2. When a person takes the affirmative action to make contact with the entity advertising the illegal activity, it is at their discretion. Nobody is forcing them to pursue the matter. Simply posting an appealing ad is insufficient to to constitute entrapment.
3. When the response discloses the underage status to the person making the inquiry, without encouraging them to overlook or otherwise induce them to take the next steps to meet, that is not entrapment. It is a de-facto warning to the caller that if they continue to communicate to arrange to meet this minor for purposes of prostitution, that they are dealing with a minor.
If the advertiser then said something encouraging along the lines of, 'C'mon, don't be a wuss, look, I've got ID that says I'm 21, I look older and nobody will know and Ill swear up and down that I wil tell the cops that I told. you that I was 21 if you get caught", when in fact the caller has already been told the advertiser is a minor, that is an inducement to commit an act that they may not have otherwise committed. That is entrapment.
I'm happy that the police conduct these operations. It makes those with those tendencies, somewhat more reluctant to act on their impulse and think twice of the risk and not follow through. Hopefully it discourages, or even culls those in society who would otherwise become a client and therefore create a market for further, actual, prostitution of minors.
Having said all that, wtf is with this "pedophilia" term being misused. Pedophilia refers specifically to pre-pubescent children.
There is another word for those sexually attracted to post-pubescent, young women, but loosely under the age of legal consent. Being attracted to a young woman who is physically developed into a woman with breasts, hips, pubes etc is not pedophilia. I do think it is exploitive to engage in sexual acts with young women who may appear to be physically sexually mature but at whose age has not developed the mental maturity to make considered decisions on consenting to sexual activity. Especially if there is a significant age or power disparity. So 2 fourteen year olds fooling around and having sex is much different than a 14 yo having sexual relations with a 40 year old. The Criminal Code recognizes this and there is a 'close-in-age' exemption of some sort to account for teenage romances etc while protecting naiive teens from being manipulated by more mature, developed minds for their own sexual gratification.
I'm all for these stings. I wish the police dedicated more resources to this sector of enforcement. In fact, they'd be wise to enlist the consultantcy of a civillian hobbyist or former pimp to recognize the signs of gang or OC controlled operations, exploited women in general etc.
www.cp24.com
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