Discussion Main / PaedoHunt

The Outsiders example link needs to be updated from Batman and the Outsiders to Outsiders (2003). I'd do it myself, but the article is locked.

I wouldn't mind seeing the description of the trope expanded to explain the potential fallacy of this view. speaking as a male who volunteers with children often, and has fallen pray to the presumptions that the pedo hunt archetype has caused, I would prefer someone spelled out that Television Is Trying To Kill You here...

In reality, while sick pedophiles like this do occur, the truth is that most children are molested by their immediate family or intimate partners of their guardian. It is very rare for someone to kidnap a child to molest them. In fact a child is at a greater risk of being molested sitting next to their father then a stranger on a bus.

However, the pedo hunt mindset in adults have resulted in a situation where grown males can be distrusted around children. This results in men being afraid to volunteer with or help children. Despite the desperate need for more male mentors (many boys in mentor programs lack a father-figure in their life and desire a male role-model), men are often afraid to work with children due to the bias and distrust they get from the public for working with children (and this troper can attest to the reality of this bias!), and fear that they may have to defend themselves against false accusations (yes, this has occured to me as well)

Worse still, the focus on watching out for 'pedos' causes the public to ignore the *real* danger for children, close family and family friends. A child's molester may be get away with the crime because everyone presumes only a strange pedophile can hurt their child, not someone known. There have been cases where family members notice symptoms of molestation and leap to conclusion that a male volunteering with the child, but with little private contact (like a coach or sunday school teacher) is harming the child. This can lead to the family ignoring the *real* culprit or thinking they solved the problem by removing the problematic donor.

anyways,, something to expand on the reality of the situation I think would, in a small way, help address a false presumption in general culture that is harmful to the children that the pedo-hunt is supposedly protecting.

What's with the "ae"?

Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Is the name supposed to make sense?, started by nuclearneo577 on Aug 1st 2011 at 2:24:19 AM

Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Unclear Description, started by TheKaizerreich on Nov 21st 2017 at 12:42:54 AM

In Welcome to the Game if you visit the Pedophile's Handbook website, you are instantly kidnapped by the kidnapper.

Author Alan Sillitoe, in his volume of short stories The Loneliness of the long-Distance Runner, has a story where a lonely single man makes friends with a girl of around ten. He genuinely wants to be a sort of uncle, an older mentor, and has no sexual intent whatsoever. He is acting from the best of motives. but nobody believes him. Eventually he is forced to leave town by the local police.

And Sillitoe's stories are set in England at the turn of the 1950's into the 1960's.

Paedo Hunt seems to be for when the hunt is unjustified. What is the trope for when it is justified? The explanation section should probably have a link to that.

Another example for the live action section:

• Invoked in a skit on The Whitest Kids U' Know: Trevor sings a song to a group of children titled ‘Get a New Daddy’, teaching them that if their parents annoy them, they can lie about their parents molesting them to send them away and get adopted by a foster family.

What is this an English site? Rename to Pedo Hunt, as per every page that links here.

I'd like to add an example to "Film":

Aptly-titled Danish film The Hunt features a case in which the subject of the Pedo Hunt is, in fact, completely innocent. Lucas, played by Mads Mikkelsen, is a kindergarten teacher falsely accused of abuse by a young girl, which (unsurprisingly) results in him being ostracized and threatened by the community.

Not enough details to tell if this is an example or not:

• M: The character "merely" murders, children, but there's a subtext of paedophilia.

Again, does the trope appear? Is there pedophilia and a mob reaction? Also — subtext probably isn't good enough, we need an actual character who is clearly a pedophile.

I'd like to add two items by Dee Snider/Twisted Sister.

Under Music: Captain Howdy and Street Justice are icons of the trope - Captain Howdy is the song of the pedo, and Street Justice is about the neighborhood hunting him down.

Under Films: Strangeland. 'nuff said. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangeland_%28film%29

I'd like to add several examples from Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU where either

1) a registered pedophile was scapegoated and was, in fact, innocent or

2) where the police thought that it was a situation of pedophilia but the "victim" was actually an adult (typically a woman who is, for various reason, pretending to be a high school student or simply resembles one).

I can think of four episodes where this happens in L&O shows right off the top of my head. They all involve a false assumption of guilt (and a "witchhunt") by either the police or the general public.

Since we're asking for entries to be added, can we include a Video Games folder and insert:

-Grand Theft Auto IV: The In-game internet includes a Schmuck Bait website title "Lil' Lacey's Birthday Surprise." Visiting it immediately grants the player a 4-star wanted level.

Ok, this article needs a better explanation, is this for when people are hunting Paedophiles or when the Paedophiles are hunting children. Or is this just "Villain = Paedo"?

Can we add the (Live action TV) Brass Eye special that was made as satire of the real-world paedo hunt of the time, with a major recurring segment directly OF a paedo hunt? It was the first thing I thought of.

Norman Osborne is actually a ephebophile considering Qwen was well passed puberty and IIRC of legal age. I think the reference in the comic section should not be here.

The entry for Film: Hard Candy just says, 'Hard Candy is a big game Paedo Hunt' without explaining why. If any mods want to add an explanation:

The movie starts off with a naive teenage girl having coffee with an older guy she met on the internet, but it's eventually revealed that she already had strong suspicions that he was a serial pedophile/murderer and had specifically targeted him. She purposely baits him to get into his house so she can find evidence of his crimes, then torture him, ruin his life, and coerce him to kill himself.

Requesting an addition in the Video Game section

• In Silent Hill Downpour, the reason Murphy is in jail is to get close to the man who raped and killed his son. Deconstructed in that Napier's death didn't do anything but create more trouble.

Can someone update the now-removed Youtube link to Oprah's famous comment? There's another one at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7liYfhRgXGk that works just fine.

The last example under the "Live Action TV" section has a homophonic error: "full proof" instead of "foolproof."

Edit: This is the same example that was added in the discussion post above this one.

A more literal application of the trope happens in one episode of Without A Trace. A young looking woman poses as underage bait, a fledging, wheelchair bound unofficial cop (an accident prevented him from getting a badge), and a cameraman (who was later revealed to have been raped during a home invasion when he was 12) set up a sting operation to catch pedophiles, a la To Catch A Predator. Unlike the Chris Hanson manned operation, this version is more vigilante based and not exactly full proof to prevent people from escaping, which one guy managed to do. The cop goes after him, and gives him a "Reason You Suck" Speech, which drove the pedophile to shoot himself with the cop's gun. To make things even better, when the cameraman realized the cop was about to tell the police about what happened, he tried to kill him to shut up, though was unsuccessful. By episode's end, the cop survived the assault but by killing the cameraman.

Not enough details to tell if this is an example or not:

• Alan Moore wrote a two issue story arch in Vigilante called fathers day about a girl trying to escape her father.

Does the trope appear? Is there a Pædo Hunt? On balance the example is most probably shoehorning in a story that has a abusive parent as a character.

Under literature, can someone please add

• In the novel The Godfather, Jack Woltz (the studio executive who wakes up with a horse head in his bed) is given some extra creepy characterization. It is revealed that aspiring actresses have been bringing their young daughters to his house in the middle of the night, assumedly for nefarious reasons.

And again I must express my annoyance that there are locked articles, which I'm sure is preventing people from contributing good ideas.

There's Natter under Western Animation(South Park).

In regard to the Baron Harkonnen, while this is true about him, it didn't seem that anyone was hunting him on the basis of this. It's hardly the worst thing he's done, for all we know it might have been common about aristocrats.

Can we add the manga Kodomo no Jikan to the comics section? It seriously deals with Renji suspecting Aoki of something and similarly Aoki suspecting the same of Renji.

I think we could also add Nightmare on Elm Street and Little Children to Film. The flashback of O-Ren Ishi from Kill Bill may also qualify.

Though it was only revealed retroactively, the seduction of Gwen Stacy by Norman Osborn may qualify. It wasn't a hunt on him for that reason, did stir up the haet for him.

As for Literature, I think we should add Batman: The Ultimate Evil by Andrew Vachss.

Probably lots of other stuff since it's a small section.

Coming to this, I thought it was the scenario where the town gets into a frenzy over someone they think is a paedophile. Is there an equivalent trope for that, or would that just be this one, Played With/Subverted?

Can I include the Dexter example where Dexter (a Serial-Killer Killer) makes an exception to his "only kill killers" rule in order to kill a paedophile who is targeting his step-daughter, Astor.

What about "Dune" and Baron Harkonnen? It is heavily implied, and later outright stated, that he has a liking for little boys...

The CSI episode "Harvest" used this trope. A 12-year old girl is reported missing and later found dead. There seems to be evidence implicating a convicted paedophile in the region. In reality, the girl's family were covering up her death, and they used an internet watchdog site that lists the locations of such people and looked up the closest one to implicate.

I'd like to add the example of Acid Row to the Literature section, but of course it's locked at the moment. Any administrators interested in adding it? Basic synopsis is that a social worker is visiting the house of a convicted sex offender in a lower-class neighborhood when a child comes up missing. The actual offender is harmless and ineffectual, his father is the dangerous one, and an innocent neighbor is more or less torn apart by the mob.

Anyone notice the two web original sections?