Professor Mary Graw Leary of Catholic Law was recently quoted in a McClatchy News Group article published in the Miami Herald. The piece explored citizen-led groups emerging across the U.S. to expose individuals who prey on children. While these groups aim to protect communities, the article highlights concerns about their potential to encourage vigilantism and jeopardize legal cases against sex offenders in court. To view the article, click here.

Miami Herald 
Story by Julia Marnin 
Date: February 4, 2025
‘Predator’-catching group exposed town’s police chief. Are citizen-led stings helpful?

. . .

Mary Graw Leary, a law professor at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law and a former federal prosecutor, said in an interview with McClatchy News that violence is harmful to an investigation.

. . .

"The other piece about violence, which really, I think often gets overlooked, is the people unrelated to the investigation,” she said. “They are potentially put at risk when you create this kind of a tense situation.”

. . .

“The way to respond to victimization of children is not to take the law into your own hands, but to work with the law and to create laws that are more protective for children, and to not ignore the fact, in my opinion, that we have an unregulated internet which monetizes the sexual objectification of children,” Leary said.

. . .