The hand that robs the cradle

Are child abductions on the rise?

All the evidence says no. There are nearly 60 million children in this country, and every year from 3,000 to 5,000 are seized by strangers. That rate has held steady for years. Most of these kidnappings are perpetrated by sexual predators who release the children after a few hours. Abductions like the Smart case, which the FBI calls “stereotypical kidnappings,” are rarest of all. In these kidnappings, the child is transported 50 or more miles, held overnight or longer, and ransomed or killed. In 2001, there were 93 of these crimes in the U.S. That actually represents a decline from the 1980s, when the annual figure was 200 to 300.

Who kidnaps children?

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Mainly their own mothers and fathers. Of the 350,000 children reported kidnapped every year, 98 percent are taken by parents, almost always in connection with custody battles. About 90 percent of these cases are resolved within a month, and 94 percent of all kidnapped children are eventually returned home safely, the U.S. Justice Department says.

Then why so much fear?

It’s largely a media-generated phenomenon. In the last two years, a number of abduction cases have generated huge waves of publicity; 24-hour coverage by the cable news networks has turned these stolen children into household names: Elizabeth Smart, Danielle van Dam, Samantha Runnion, Jessica Cortez. By way of perspective, consider that more Americans are killed by lightning every year than children are abducted and killed by kidnappers. In general, the more unusual a child-abduction case is, the likelier it is to grab headlines. This was true of Elizabeth Smart, who was taken from her bedroom in the middle of the night—a nightmare scenario that practically never happens. It was precisely because Elizabeth’s story was so atypical that it proved irresistible to national newspapers and the major networks, which quickly began focusing on other abductions that would normally have been of only local interest. “The televised media and the radio are just terrible,” says Paula Fass, a University of California history professor and author of the 1997 book Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America. “They have no historical memory. Their only concern is exploiting emotion, and one emotion we can depend on is the fist in the gut of a parent.”

Is that the only reason for fear?

Well-meaning advocacy groups are also contributing. These groups got their start after the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz in New York City, and the 1981 abduction and killing of 6-year-old Adam Walsh in Hollywood, Fla. Appalled by these terrible crimes, parents and law-enforcement officials started organizations devoted to tracking down kidnapped children, and successfully lobbied for new laws and the creation of child search agencies. They also inspired such anti-kidnapping measures as putting the faces of missing children on milk cartons. These high-profile efforts have created the impression that child abduction is both common and growing at an accelerated rate. “Even though the numbers of stranger, nonfamily abductions is not rising,” says Carol Robins of the nonprofit agency Child Find of America, “the fear around it is.”

Just how concerned are parents?

Enough to support an entire industry devoted to keeping children safe from predators. These days, many harness their children with leashes or affix Day-Glo stickers to them, the better to spot them in crowds. Others stay in touch via walkie-talkies. One popular high-tech approach is the “electronic leash”: Parent and child each wear a beeper-sized unit, and when the child wanders beyond a certain distance, the parent’s alarm goes off. One outfit, Wherify Wireless of Redwood Shores, Calif., has devised a toy wristwatch that transmits the wearer’s location by using signals from the Global Positioning System. Another company, Applied Digital Solutions of Palm Beach, Fla., is developing a microchip tracer that can be implanted in a child’s body to pinpoint his or her location to within 75 feet.

Isn’t this an overreaction?

Many child-care experts think so. “Our society has come to the conclusion that people are dangerous, and generally they’re not,” says child-care consultant Thomas W. Phelan. In a way, all our attempts to protect children may end up backfiring. When soccer moms drive their kids to play dates, and walk them to and from the bus stop, they have little chance to develop street smarts and safety skills. Some experts say fear has stranded many pre-teens and teens in their homes, where they spend too much time parked in front of TVs, video games, and the Internet—which can be more dangerous than any playground. Even Marc Klaas, whose daughter Polly was kidnapped and murdered in 1993, thinks parents are overreacting. “We cannot let fear overwhelm us,” he says. “We have to give them [children] some latitude and hope the force is with us.”

The Amber Alert