Case of abducted Jaycee Dugard (almost 20 years ago) and some thoughts.

[Poll_Blind]

So a girl who was abducted in 1991 has now been found alive. Her name is Jaycee Dugard. The people who abducted her so long ago have been arrested. You can learn more about her story here, just breaking on CNN.

I do not know what the abductors' motives were but I wanted to find out some statistics on child abductions. I have three children. What I did find, astounded me.

From a press release from The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children earlier this year:

Every year in America an estimated 800,000 children are reported missing, more than 2,000 children each day. Of that number, 200,000 are abducted by family members, and 58,000 are abducted by non-family members. The primary motive for non-family abductions is sexual. Each year 115 children are the victims of the most serious abductions, taken by non-family members and either murdered, held for ransom, or taken with the intent to keep.

  So every year 58,000 children (almost 160 a day) are abducted in America, primarily for sexual abuse purposes. In comparison, about 36 people are killed by drunk drivers on American roads each day, on average. So something like 4 1/2 times more children are abducted, essentially to be sexually abused, than die on the roads because of drunk driving. Somehow, I thought the ratios would be reversed. Maybe hoped is a better word.

  My point? I dunno. Maybe nothing, maybe a whole bunch of points. Maybe just to pass out the numbers and let you ponder for yourself. Sometimes, really, the numbers do the most important talking.

PB

[SoCalDem]

1. question

...800,000 yearly
..-200,000 by family
...-58,000 by non family

leaves 542,000

If 58K are for sexual purposes, what about the 542K?:shrug:

[anigbrowl]

2. Aliens

Obviously.

[Poll_Blind]

3. Remember, that 800,000 figure are the entirety of children reported missing, period.

I would expect (thankfully) the bulk of those numbers represent false alarms, miscommunications between the parents and children, etc. If a parent all of a sudden can't find their child they're more likely to call the police (et al.) first than calmly "wait it out".

Little example from my childhood growing up in New Orleans. This is from...like 5th or 6th grade. One day my friend Stanley and I were horsing around like idiots and didn't catch the schoolbus home, having missed it because we (as aforementioned) were idiots. Anyway, Stanley and I lived near each other but both of us lived quite a ways from the school. By the time we realized we were basically screwed, there wasn't (apparently) any adult at the school we could ask to call our parents. So we walked. Which took us about an hour and a half, mostly because we were meandering like children, peeking in at the local video arcade and so on.

Of course, when I arrived home my mom was frantic. New Orleans is not (and to my knowledge, has ever been) a particularly nice place for children to go walking around, unattended. She hadn't called the police yet but, as we colloquially say in the South, was fixin ta.

I imagine the bulk of those reported are things similar to that.

:shrug:

PB

[Contrary1]

5. Runaways. That accounts for most of the missing kids. n/t

[Poll_Blind]

6. Thank you, I didn't even think of that. n/t

PB

[Odin2005]

4. "primarily for sexual abuse purposes" OMFG!!!

:cry:

[Cherchez la Femme]

7. kick kick kick!

Another link:
Jaycee Lee Dugard Kidnapped, Impregnated, and Forced to Live in Shed, Say Police
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/27/crimesider/entry5270224.shtml

There is no cure for these predators, either life in prison or turning them into a eunuch can keep innocents safe.
Hate to take such a hard line, but there is no other viable option.