Less than a year ago, in a Walmart parking lot near Albany, New York, a man stepped out of his car into a nightmare. A group of men from the vigilante group Dads Against Predators ambushed him, accusing him of soliciting a minor online. “You thought you were meeting a kid, you sick freak!” one of them shouted, as the crowd closed in. A fist shattered the man’s nose, blood spraying his shirt. A kick cracked ribs with a sickening snap. The man collapsed, gasping, as the mob screamed “Predator!” and spat on him. A third assailant shaved patches of his hair, leaving scalp lacerations, while a camera captured his anguished face. “Finish him!” someone yelled, drowning out his pleas. The assault, livestreamed on Locals to thousands of approving viewers, later went viral on X, amassing 35 million views—nearly double the 2024 Academy Awards’ audience. According to a police report, the victim declined to press charges, and no convictions followed.

This brutal scene, detailed in the New York Times article “Online ‘Pedophile Hunters’ Are Growing More Violent — and Going Viral” (March 26, 2025) by Aric Toler and Neil Bedi, is not an outlier. As a defense attorney who specializes in representing individuals on the sex offender registry, I witness the fallout of this kind of “mob justice” literally every day. And while I commend the Times for spotlighting this alarming trend, I’m troubled by its narrow lens. A wider scope is needed to fully apprehend the societal forces at play.

A Violent Evolution

The New York Times investigation exposes a chilling shift in the world of online “pedophile hunters.” Drawing inspiration from the 2000s TV show To Catch a Predator, these vigilantes pose as minors on dating apps, entrap targets in incriminating conversations, and expose them publicly—often with savage violence. The article documents over 170 attacks since 2023, perpetrated by at least 22 individuals or groups, most occurring in the past year. These range from public shaming to life-altering assaults. In one harrowing case, 19-year-old Ahmad Al-Azzam, known online as “realjuujika,” allegedly broke into a 73-year-old Pennsylvania man’s home, beat him with a hammer, and livestreamed the attack, sneering, “You will probably die tonight.” The victim required brain surgery to survive.

From a legal perspective, these acts are indefensible. They bypass due process, endanger bystanders, and undermine legitimate prosecutions. A District Attorney quoted in the article captured the issue succinctly: “Attacking someone so you can make money on social media is a crime.” Yet, the Times reports that only seven of the 22 identified violent groups or individuals faced charges, often because authorities decline to pursue cases or victims, fearing further stigma, refuse to press charges. This emboldens vigilantes, who operate with increasing impunity, shielded by society’s visceral hatred for their targets.

The Times Ignores Deeper Societal Currents

The New York Times attributes much of the surge to loosely moderated platforms like Kick, Rumble, and Locals, which harbor violent content after YouTube and others tightened restrictions. Backed by conservative investors and driven by “free speech” rhetoric, these platforms amplify vigilante videos. “Hunters” profit through subscriptions, merchandise, and sponsorships, turning sadistic beatings into a grotesque business. Criminologist Emma Hussey, cited in the article, notes a “notable increase in overt physical violence.” Laurent Gayer calls these acts “punishment shows,” crafted for theatrical impact. The Times also highlights the appeal to hypermasculine audiences, where crude, violent aesthetics resonate in online circles that glorify dominance. Public revulsion toward “child predators” cloaks vigilantes in moral legitimacy.

There are much larger cultural forces at play, however, that the article barely touches on or simply ignores:

• The Internet, a sprawling mirror of societal fracture, deepens the erosion of community ties, leaving Americans isolated and yearning for purpose. Platforms like Kick and Locals amplify this disconnection by curating echo chambers where distrust in institutions festers. Algorithms prioritize divisive content, boosting sensational narratives—often conspiracies about “elite” cover-ups, like alleged “pedophile rings”—that spread rapidly across forums and feeds, as studies on misinformation show. These platforms reward engagement over accuracy, elevating voices that vilify government, media, or courts as corrupt. Pew Research tracks the resulting collapse in public confidence, intensified by scandals like the Catholic Church scandals and cover-ups. This skepticism, shared across political divides, sparks rebellion against systems seen as shielding predators. Some, rooted in anarchist or libertarian ideals, reject state authority, embracing a DIY justice mindset where livestreamed violence supplants courtrooms. Research on media violence suggests prolonged exposure to such brutality desensitizes users, normalizing aggression and quietly legitimizing vigilante action as a moral necessity.

• America’s obsession with punishment is also part of the picture. Decades of “tough on crime” policies, from three-strikes laws to mass incarceration, have normalized retribution over redemption. Sex offenders bear the brunt. Cultural neopuritanism, with its discomfort around sexuality, amplifies outrage, blurring lines between heinous predators and those who commit serious but lesser offenses. This moral absolutism echoes historical panics—17th-century witch hunts for example—where fear of deviance justified mob violence and ultimately murder.

• The West’s ever-evolving obsession with The Sacred Child fuels this fire as well. In pre-modern times, children were mini-adults, their “innocence” less sacrosanct. The Victorian era romanticized them as pure, a view solidified by feminist and child protection movements that exposed the trauma of sexual abuse. Today, in America, raping a child is the ultimate violation, worse even than murder, triggering primal disgust rooted in evolutionary instincts to protect the group’s future. Evolutionary psychology research and studies on childhood’s cultural sanctity underscore this protective impulse. Rigid moral boundaries leave no room for redemption, and vigilantes exploit this, casting themselves as avengers of innocence, their violence a tribute to what is arguably our most cherished cultural ideal.

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The Sex Offender Registry: America’s Pariah Factory

The Times article barely mentions sex offender registries, yet they may actually be the engine of the crisis the article is ostensibly about. Enacted in the 1990s to protect communities, registries have ballooned into draconian systems ensnaring nearly 1 million Americans. My clients on the sex offender registry—many convicted of misdemeanors or decades-old offenses—face residency bans, job barriers, and relentless ostracism. A 2018 study in the Journal of Law and Economics found registries do little to curb recidivism, yet they trap people in a cycle of exclusion and poverty. Publicly accessible data invites vigilante action, from doxxing to assaults. The 2016 suicide of a woman targeted by Creep Catchers and the 2006 murders of two Maine registrants by a vigilante underscore the registries’ deadly consequences.

Registries don’t just punish—they dehumanize, creating a permanent pariah class. The Times article nods to this, but it misses how registries embolden vigilantes by signaling registrants are fair game, forever guilty. This isn’t freelance justice; it’s a state-sanctioned sport.

Do We Need Pariahs to Survive? Probably, yes.

A question my family recently debated over dinner (and also, a hint at how popular we are at parties): Does society need a pariah class in order to function? Evolutionary psychology suggests we do. Humans evolved in tribes where cohesion meant survival. Scapegoating an “out-group”—heretics, witches, Jews, sex offenders—unites the “in-group,” channeling tensions onto a sacrificial target. Pariahs set moral boundaries, clarifying what’s sacred, like childhood innocence. They satisfy our disgust response, a primal instinct to purge contamination, offering catharsis through righteous anger. René Girard’s scapegoating theory illuminates this dynamic.

Personally, I believe that only storytelling can humanizes offenders and temper moral disgust. But finding audiences open to nuance is daunting. Meanwhile, the “pedophile hunters” keep streaming, and the blood keeps flowing—a footnote to history, or a harbinger of greater violence to come? Our children and grandchildren will just have to wait and see.