‘Paedophile Hunters’, Criminal Procedure, and Fundamental Human Rights
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12235 |
| Author | Joe Purshouse |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 47, NUMBER 3, SEPTEMBER 2020
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 384–411
‘Paedophile Hunters’, Criminal Procedure, and
Fundamental Human Rights
Joe Purshouse∗
‘Paedophile hunters’ have attracted global media attention. The limited
literature on paedophile hunters, which documents their emergence in
contemporary liberal democracies, pays scant attention to how their use
of intrusive investigative methods may threaten the procedural rights
of suspects and undermine the integrity of the criminal justice system.
This article fills this normative ‘gap’ in the literature. It draws upon
media coverage, criminal procedure jurisprudence, and criminological
scholarship to analyse the regulation of paedophile hunting in English
and Welsh law. The article suggests that domestic law does not afford
adequate protection to due processand the fundamental human rights of
those falling under the paedophile hunter’s purview. Unless paedophile
hunting is constrained by a narrower and more robustly enforced
regulatory regime, it should not be permitted, let alone encouraged, in
contemporary liberal democracies.
INTRODUCTION
This article analyses the regulation of the activities of so-called ‘paedophile
hunters’. It suggests that paedophile hunters, as citizens using proactive
policing methods, can pose a unique threat to the fundamental rights of those
whom they target, which lawmakers and practitioners have not adequately
managed.
Although there are variances in how different groups operate, paedophile
hunters predominantly pose as children on social media platforms and in
online chatrooms and lure potential child sex offenders to an ostensible illicit
∗School of Law, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich,
NR4 7TJ, England
J.Purshouse@uea.ac.uk
I am grateful to Findlay Stark, Paul Roberts, Ian Edwards, Rob Heywood, Craig Purshouse,
the anonymous reviewers, and members of the Editorial Board for their comments on
earlier drafts of this article.
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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution
and reproduction in any medium, providedthe original work is properly cited.
© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Law and Society published by John Wiley& Sons Ltd on behalf of Cardiff University (CU).
sexual encounter. Here, the suspect is confronted by the hunters, who then
typically report the alleged crime to the police and post video footage of the
confrontation on social media.
Paedophile hunters are amateurs. Their operations often require little more
than a broadband connection and a camera phone. Though employing crude
methods, these groups are incredibly popular, sometimes attracting hundreds
of thousands of followers to their social media pages. Some paedophile-
hunting groups have assisted the authorities in bringing child sex offenders to
justice. According to data obtained by the British Broadcasting Corporation
(BBC), evidence provided by paedophile-hunting groups was used to support
150 of the 302 prosecutions for the offence of meeting a child following
sexual grooming in 2017.1The official line of the police is that these groups
should not be encouraged and may face prosecution for any offences that
they commit.2However, paedophile hunters are very rarely prosecuted for
offences.3On the back of their popularity and purported success, senior
police figures have even reached out to paedophile-hunting groups to offer
vague opportunities for collaboration in the fight against child sexual abuse.4
These groups are controversial, and some have attracted negative attention
after engaging in vigilante tactics, inciting criminality, and smearing innocent
people.5This raises the question: are these overtures to paedophile hunters
imprudent?
This article answers the question affirmatively. It suggests that many of
the investigatory practices of paedophile hunters are antithetical to numerous
core values and functions of the criminal justice system. The under-regulated
paedophile hunter may also undermine state-sanctioned efforts to prevent,
detect, and prosecute child sex offences. The article brings normative legal
analysis to what has, up to this point, been a largely descriptive conversation
among criminologists. This criminological literature documents developments
in citizen-led policing, but pays scant attention to how paedophile hunters’ use
of proactive and intrusive investigative methods may threaten the procedural
rights of suspects and undermine the integrity of the criminal justice system.
1 BBC News, ‘“Paedophile Hunter” Evidence Used to Charge 150 Suspects’, 10 April
2018, at <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-43634585>.
2 S. Bailey and M. Skeer, National Guidance on Responding to Online CSA Vigilante
Groups (2017).
3 It is only in cases where paedophile hunters resort to violence that they tend to be
charged. J. Simpson, ‘Paedophile-Hunters Are Warned Off by Police after Brawl’
Times , 19 April 2017, at <https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/paedophile-hunters-
are-warned-off-by- police-after-brawl-2cbzcpkpg>.
4 BBC News, ‘Recruit “Paedophile Hunters” Call to Help Police’,5 July 2017, at <http:
//www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-40497162>; K. Sandeman, ‘Why Nottinghamshire
Police Could Strengthen Links with Paedophile Hunters’ Nottingham Post,
9 October 2018, at <https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/
nottinghamshire-police-could- strengthen-links-2090840>.
5 BBC News, ‘“Paedophile Hunter” to Face Criminal Charges’, 14 February 2018, at
<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-43049316>.
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© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Law and Society published by John Wiley& Sons Ltd on behalf of Cardiff University(CU).
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