Violence Grows Among Pedophile-Hunting Vigilantes

The show To Catch a Predator may have ended nearly 20 years ago, but it continues to inspire a new generation of increasingly violent vigilantes. A New York Times investigation looks into how groups and individuals on platforms such as Kick and Locals have been gaining followers—and thus, money—by showcasing their video confrontations.

• The investigation counted more than 170 violent attacks by self-described pedophile hunters since 2023, with the violence spiking in the last year. At least 22 different individuals and groups such as Dads Against Predators were involved. "There has been a notable increase in overt physical violence within these groups," says Emma Hussey of Australia's Queensland University of Technology, who has studied the trend.

• In one case, a masked assailant who goes by "realjuujika" online allegedly broke into the home of a 73-year-old man in Pennsylvania and beat the man with a hammer while recording the attack on video. The man survived but required surgery to stop a brain bleed. A 19-year-old has been charged.
• Other videos show beatings, head shavings, and bizarre forms of violence (making an alleged pedophile walk barefoot over mousetraps, for example) that amount to what one expert on vigilante justice calls a "punishment show." The DAP group boasts of causing multiple suicides.
• Police warn that vigilantes themselves will be prosecuted. "Life is not a comic book," said District Attorney Christopher L. de Barrena-Sarobe of Chester County, Pennsylvania, where the attack on the 73-year-old took place. "People don't get to be a Batman."

(Read the full investigation.)