Known Relationships Are the Greater Danger – According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), every year, more than 200,000 children are abducted by family members. An additional 58,000 are taken by nonrelatives with primarily sexual motives. However, only 115 reported abductions represent cases in which strangers abduct and kill children, hold them for ransom, or take them with the intention to keep.1
Media news outlets have portrayed that abductors primarily consist of strangers or registered sex offenders (RSO), which has proven invalid in the past 2 fiscal years (FY). When a child is reported missing, members of the media advise parents to check sex offender registries to prevent their child from possible abduction or sexual victimization. However, FBI reporting indicates that RSOs are a minimal part of the problem. In FY 2009, an RSO was the abductor in 2 percent of child abduction cases; in FY 2010, this figure dropped to 1 percent.2 Full Article
I often wonder how legislators and Law Enforcement Officials can bend the truth (Tony Rackauckas, DA) when pushing for harsher laws? Its truly disturbing. In essence, they have the ethical and moral responsibility to tell the truth, but yet provide false information? Very disturbing? Is this done to get votes? Re-Election?