I think the average person regards Peeping Toms as pathetic and relatively harmless, but law-enforcement officials, who are in a position to know, regard the act of such furtive voyeurism with more alarm, believing it can escalate to other, more dangerous, perversions. After all, Ted Bundy started off as a Peeping Tom.

Cr-r-r-r-r-r-reepy!

we have some jerk neighbors who look in our windows all of the time. they live across the street from us. it really has nothing to do with illegal sex, but their brats shine flashlights in our windows. and i even could see a camcorder facing our house. then when they shine these lights and we look out of our windows to see what it is, they start pointing at us. then we hear that the brats idiot father tells everyone that we are the ones looking in their windows. but what do I expect these are the same parents who believe that it is child abuse to say no and have any rules for their kids.all we can do is close our blinds as best as we can.

Actually, while a woman can file a harassment suit if a man looks at her the wrong way, she cannot maintain it unless she proves an intent to harass her. Very few harassment suits are successful when they do have merit, and the meritless ones are tossed out routinely. But a peeping tom isn't merely a harasser. A peeping Tom violates not only the victim's privacy, but also her (or his) basic dignity. It is a serious crime, and there should be some jail time with opportunity to shorten it if the perp voluntarily agrees to long term mental health care. Updating: Well, I think it's a bit more serious than mere trespassing. You trespass when you walk across somebody's lawn without permission. Just not on the same scale.

Staring in my bathroom window would be like forcing someone to stare at the sun too long...first your retinas will begin to burn, the pain will set in, and eventually you would beg and plead for blindness.

People are entitled to their privacy, and peeping toms violate that. This crime is no different than trespassing in my opinion.