The awful reports seem to come daily. Another child has been kidnapped. A body has been found, or a small girl miraculously has escaped. Ever since the Wasatch Front had its nerves rattled raw by the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart last month, the entire nation seems besieged by a crime that can only be described as a parent's ultimate nightmare.
Now, as if to settle everyone down a bit, comes a report from the San Francisco Chronicle that carefully reveals the truth. Kidnapping is not on the rise. This year's total will fall within the yearly average of about 100 abductions, and that is well below the average in the 1980s, when 200 to 300 kids disappeared every year. Last year, 725,000 reports were filed on missing children, but nearly all of those were cases in which the child either ran away from home or was taken by another family member — often a divorced or estranged spouse.
Media attention can at times blow things out of proportion. Last summer, for instance, wave after wave of shark-attack stories filled newspapers and broadcast outlets. Interest was piqued after an 8-year-old boy was attacked and his uncle wrestled the fish to shore and helped authorities remove the boy's severed arm from its mouth. But, as it turned out, the number of shark attacks last summer was about average. Only the coverage was above average.
This summer, a similar number of people have been attacked by sharks, but the news reports have been scant.
So, are the current spate of kidnapping stories nothing more than the latest manifestation of a trendy media fad? The cause du jour for editors and news directors?
The question is difficult to answer. All we know for sure is that child abductions are worthy of all the attention they get, regardless of motive. One may safely say that, if 100 abductions have been recorded on average per year, it is about time they got some publicity.
Without the publicity, police in Philadelphia may not have had the energy to rapidly pursue and arrest suspects in the kidnapping of 7-year-old Erica Pratt. Beyond that, the world never would have known about Erica's daring and courageous tale of escape, which included gnawing through duct tape. Police in California may not have moved so quickly to catch a suspect in the death of Samantha Runnion.
When it comes to the potential for kidnapping, a little fear is a good thing. This summer, parents have been more alert to dangers and they have been instructing their children carefully. And yet the media attention has an undercurrent of helplessness to it. Some of the victims screamed and made noise. Others fought valiantly, to no avail.
This is , indeed, a hideous crime. As Mark Klass, the man who lost a 12-year-old girl nine years ago, told the Chronicle, "If we have 100 children abducted and killed each year, that's an epidemic."
Our worry is that the media attention will turn elsewhere at the first distraction. The 100 or so children who are abducted in 2003 should not be treated like this year's shark victims. To a large extent, that will depend on the public's continuing willingness to get involved.