You’re more likely to be struck by a meteor than to have your kid abducted by a stranger.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) gets about $40 million a year in federal funding. It spends at least a few of those bucks crafting unnecessary emails like the one I got last week with the subject line: “Are your kids safely back-to-schooling?”
Not only is “back-to-schooling” not a verb, but also the question seems geared less toward making kids safe and more toward making parents terrified to ever let their kids leave the house.
Dear Lenore, the letter begins:
Routine bus stops, children biking or walking to school, and after-school pick-ups by parents are back all over America as we embark on another year of learning.
“While we are all excited for the year ahead, it is important to keep in mind one of the most important statistics we at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) know all too well—that attempted abductions occur more often when a child is going to or from school or school-related activities.”
But why are we talking about attempted abductions at all? I get that kidnapping is NCMEC’s calling card, but if we’re really concerned about keeping kids safe on the way to school, why focus on the least likely of all dangers? Why not talk about pedestrian safety? Or the danger of driving the kids to school? After all, about 1,000 kids under age 14 die as car passengers each year.
Meanwhile, according to U.S. Department of Justice statistics for 2019, just published this year, somewhere between 52 and 306 children were abducted by strangers in Law & Order style kidnappings. About 8 percent of them were killed.
Those cases are horrible and heartbreaking. They are also extremely rare, thank goodness. In a country of 73,000,000 minors, we’re talking about 1 in 2.5 million. For comparison, National Geographic estimates that your chance of dying from a “local meteorite, asteroid or comet impact is” 1 in 1.6 million.
Maybe NCMEC should warn about that? Don’t let your kids leave the house without an iron umbrella?
I love reading what Lenore Skenazy writes! She is awesome and always makes sense.
Good article. How many here have heard amber alerts on their phones? I have. Many many of them. I have heard, abducted by father, abducted by mother, abducted by grandparent, abducted by relative, abducted by family friend, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard, abducted by stranger. It keeps on fueling stranger danger which is very very rare. They need to be shut down on that thought.
Here’s an idea:
Maybe it would be better if the national center for exploited and missing children was honest about what they mean by exploited or missing. What most people think those statistics represent is just a tiny fraction of the whole picture. Although what responsibilities does a private company have to be honest to the public?
Of course there’s the real issue of preventing the exploitation and abuse of those under eighteen before it happens as well. I don’t pay a lot of attention to the details, but it seems this organization sucks at doing the very thing it’s supposed to do. By stopping something before it happens there ought to be less prosecutions because the potential victim and potential offender were prevented from going down those paths. Oh wait that would eventually mean less money and people focused on such things…hmmm what a tragedy for an improved world.
Any large sex offender registry protest should surround the center. There is plenty enough to do it but hey he of the will. 40 million can by lots of friends.
listening to the spokeswoman from NCMEC reminds me of the stepford wives or was it invasion of the body snatchers! Money and control is the only thing driving this.
“…for 2019, …between 52 and 306* children were abducted by strangers… . About 8 percent* of them were killed.”
(*That is a very big range: 1 to 6.
Imagine, an officer pulls you over and asks “How many drinks did you have before getting behind the wheel?” And you reply, “Somewhere between 1 and 6.” 🙄 Seriously, how does the USDOJ have such incredibly poor statistics?? [Did I hear you say it’s intentional? How could that be? 😒 ] And the number of stranger-abducted & murdered children? Well, “about 8%” of 52 – 306 = 4 – 24 kids killed.)
Interestingly, Everytown for Gun Safety provides this information: “Between August 1, 2021, and May 31, 2022 [10 months], there were 193 incidents of gunfire at preschools and K–12 schools….. These incidents left 59 people…. killed and 138 people…. wounded.”
The numbers suggest that a child is up to 15 times more likely to die in a school shooting than to be abducted and murdered by a stranger.
They’re so misguided and delusional, they actually think they’re “saving” children in Adam’s memory. This is dangerous cultish fanatical thinking. It’s right up there with Heaven’s Gate and Flat-earthers.