Increased child abductions?

[ABEL]

In the past few months, it seems that at least every week I hear of a child being abducted. It sadly seems to be occurring more and more in our society. Or is it just that the news media is covering these cases more? While increased news coverage helps in finding the missing children quicker, does the increased coverage in turn lead to copy-cat situations?

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

 

[U2Bama]

It seems there has been a copy-cat phenomenon since Elizabeth Smart was abducted. There should be no mercy for child abducters on this earth.

~U2Alabama

 

[Hallelujah Here She Comes]

I actually read an article on this a couple weeks ago. It said that while there has been a rash of high profile cases in the past months, the number of child abductions is actually going down. Not that that's any comfort for the families of the children that are still missing, but I'm sure glad it's not the other way around.

 

[rafmed]

We have a big problem in Mexico with the abductions of children, there are gangs dedicated to kidnap children and sell them, wether to families outside Mexico (usually USA, Canada) or to sell organs for transplants, its a real problem and with the lack of economic resources, the corruption and bad quality of some parts of our Police system, sometimes is no hope for the parents.
Thankfully, its getting a bit better latelly, there has been less abductions that in previous years, a better prepared police, higher punishments, more concern from the society and, the civil organizations formed by parents to help others in the same tragic situation.

 

[Lilly]

being a nanny of two very active boys aged 4 and 6 who live in an extremely affluent neighborhood, i've become like OCD about them. not that i didn't keep good tracking on them before, but now, it's so much more than before. i won't even let them go in the front yard without me there.


i can't even imagine losing one of my kids. especially having to explain that to their mother...i'd be devastated for my entire life.


i'm glad to see it's going down though, that's good. [/obvious statement]

 

[kobayashi]

i haven't looked into this and have only briefly perused the stories regarding the various victims. but it seems to me a lot of media attention was given to the couple of young white girls from affluent neighbourhoods and then a few more followed. the story of the girl in philadelphia had a dramatic effect in that she escaped.

i guess what i'm saying is it happened a couple of times in situations which are considered newsworthy by the popular press and then propagated throughout our society.

obviously all of the cases are very much newsworthy but some more than others(ie homicide, assaults). it is generally called a 'media scare' and in my opnion the media does do more harm than good. not because of thier focus on the issue. rather the depth and detail in which they seek to describe the situations of events past. and i don't neccessarily refer here to the graphic crimes often committed in such cases. the media strive in such cases to clearly depict good from bad, innocence from evil(in the names of youth victims or their families) in the name of drama. this effort by the popular preess can greatly attract and empower potential kidnappers.

 

[Lilly]

like everything else in the U.S, i'd say this has more to do with $ than anything

you bring up an interesting point kobe (the race part). but do you think that if elizabeth smart's family was not as affluent and the girl from philadelphia's family were millionaires, the tables would have been flipped a bit?

 

[U2Bama]

We have a big problem in Mexico with the abductions of children, there are gangs dedicated to kidnap children and sell them, wether to families outside Mexico (usually USA, Canada) or to sell organs for transplants, its a real problem and with the lack of economic resources, the corruption and bad quality of some parts of our Police system, sometimes is no hope for the parents.
Thankfully, its getting a bit better latelly, there has been less abductions that in previous years, a better prepared police, higher punishments, more concern from the society and, the civil organizations formed by parents to help others in the same tragic situation.

That is frightening; it is like a nightmare or horror story. I can't imaging being a kid or a parent and having to worry about such gangs. My neighbor's children spend their summers in Mexico with relatives every year; during the school year, I always worry about them riding their bikes in the street here, but it sounds like there is more to worry about down there. However, I am glad to hear the situation is improving.

Maybe it is correct that there have been more high-profile cases here in the U.S. lately. It seems that they have all occurred since the Smart disappearance and are not estranged parents or relatives. It is still a scary situation.

~U2Alabama

 

[kobayashi]

Re: like everything else in the U.S, i'd say this has more to do with $ than anything

you bring up an interesting point kobe (the race part). but do you think that if elizabeth smart's family was not as affluent and the girl from philadelphia's family were millionaires, the tables would have been flipped a bit?

most definetely the tables would have been flipped.

there are obviously no absolutes in this situation(or many others). but i definetely do think there is a spectrum by which all people in the professional news media consider the stories available to them. the factors which force them into this consideration are varied: obviously ownership and fiscal responsibility becomes an obvious hinderance-if what 'needs' to be told isn't what will sell papers the next morning then the editor has to make a decision. many editors these days aren't considered successful on the basis of their editorial work, rather the sales of the paper over which they run is heavily considered. (i use print here only as an example, in reality the same could be said in other media in spite of organizational differences)

many factors come into play when considering stories of course. daughter of affluent white families generally will rank high above aninner city black girl-give the inner city an infusion of 'spunk' though(ie escaping via chewing through duct tape) and the story becomes a whole lot more sellable.

 

[The Wanderer]

the statistics are heart-breaking, abductions and kid-napping (whatever you want to call them, sorry to lump them altogether but that's what statistics do) indicate that there really isnt that much of a change in the number, it's just that recently, it's happening very close to home, meaning kids are being nabbed from yards, porches, bedrooms... there are fewer and fewer boundaries it seems, and these predators are becoming increasingly bold

 

[adamswildhoney]

Its really scary! All of the abductions that are going on!

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

I actually read an article on this a couple weeks ago. It said that while there has been a rash of high profile cases in the past months, the number of child abductions is actually going down.

heh, this reminds me of around 1998 when everyone thought school shootings was on the rise.

still, whoever is in the mindset to even consider kidnapping a child is pathetic.

 

[RavenStar]

Imagine how the kids feel.

I just don't understand why society today is so lax about these people. Same goes for the Child molesters/rapists etc. They go to prison for a few years and then they're out to make trouble again.