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Protecting Children from Kidnappers As parents and their children have become more conscious about “stranger danger,” they have incor- porated preventive steps into their daily routines in a myriad of ways. Youngsters are instructed by police officers, teachers, and parents “what to do if …” as well as through comic book characters, board games, songs, […]

The Amber Alert System During the late 1990s, Amber Alert systems were set up in many states and received support from the federal government in 2003 to help searchers enlist the cooperation of the public. Amber stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, but the system is named after a nine-year-old girl who was kidnapped

Hunting for Children Who Have Vanished A 12-year-old girl and her two friends are enjoying a slumber party when they hear a knock on the bed- room door. When it is opened, a tall, bearded man wielding a large knife barges in. As her two friends giggle, thinking it is a practical joke, the intruder

Accounting for the Remaining Cases of Children Reported as Missing The NISMART–2 study concluded that of the nearly 800,000 children who were reported missing to police or child-search agencies, almost 360,000 (45 percent) turned out to be either runaways or throwaways (driven out of their homes). A roughly equal amount, 340,000 (43 percent), were consid-

How Often Are Children Kidnapped, and What Happens to Them? The NISMART–2 study analyzed nearly 800,000 cases across the country that were reported to police departments and child-search organizations in the late 1990s. Statistically, about 11 children out of every 1,000 were reported missing during 1999. The analysis yielded the following estimates of the number

Estimates of the Incidence and Seriousness of the Disappearance Problem In an effort to try to resolve the maximalist– minimalist debate, the Department of Justice, as mandated by the 1984 Missing Children’s Assis- tance Act, funded a five-year National Incidence Study of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Throwaway Children (NISMART). Researchers collected data in several ways:

Fears and Confusion Reigns in the Absence of Data Statistics about kidnappings measure one of the most heinous crimes imaginable. And yet at the beginning of the 1980s, when a nationwide panic broke out, no organization or government agency was monitoring the scope of this problem. No sys- tematic and comprehensive records were kept about

The Rediscovery of the Plight of Kidnapped Children A six-year-old boy wanders over to the toy counter in a department store in a mall near a police station. A few minutes later, his mother realizes he has dis- appeared. An intensive search is launched, but two weeks later and 120 miles away, a fisherman dis-

THE ONGOING DEBATE BETWEEN MAXIMALISTS AND MINIMALISTS A basic question that arises whenever the particular problems of entire groups are examined is, “How many people suffer in this way?” Two distinct points of view usually can be recognized: a maxi- malist alarmist perspective and the minimalist skep- tical perspective. The ongoing debate between these two

Which Victims Get Better Treatment? Arrests Suspects are more likely to be taken into custody if the victims: Request that officers make an arrest in a deferential, nonantagonistic manner (Black, 1968) Convince the police that they themselves were not involved in any illegal activity before the incident (La Fave, 1965) Prove to officers that they