Child_Abduction

I selected this social problem because of the deep passion and addiction i have for crime television. One day I realized how many child abductions and child predators are really out there, and how many lives are taken and destroyed because of it. When it comes to the statistics on child abductions and child predators the facts are very disturbing. In a study 403 attempted kidnappings by a stranger or a slight acquaintance were reported by the police or news media in 45 states from February 2005 to July 2006. "About one child is slain per 10,000 missing child reports.(1990 U.S. Justice Dept.) In 80% of abductions by strangers, the first contact occurs within a quarter mile of the child's home. In many cases, the abduction does, too.
 (1990 U.S. Justice Dept.) Most strangers grab their victims on the street or try to lure them into their vehicles. (1990 U.S. Justice Dept.) About 74% of the victims of non family child abduction are girls.
 (1990 U.S. Justice Dept.) In 1988 there were as many as 114,600 attempted abductions of children by non-family members, 4,600 abductions by non-family members reported to police, and 300 abductions by non-family members where the children were gone for long periods of time or were murdered. There were as many as 354,000 children abducted by family members, 450,700 children who ran away, 127,100 children who were thrown away, and 438,200 children who were lost, injured or otherwise missing. (1990 U.S. Justice Dept.) In a recent study of parents' worries by pediatricians at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, nearly 3/4 of parents said they feared their children might be abducted. 1/3 of parents said this was a frequent worry-a degree of fear greater than that held for any other concern, including car accidents, sports injuries, or drug addiction. (Redbook, February 1998) More than 1/5 of the children reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in non family abductions are found dead.
 (Smithsonian, Oct. 95.)" The functionalist Perspective would view this social problem as persons who instead of engaging and contributing to the overall stability of society instead choose to cause dysfunctions. Dysfunctions are the undesirable consequences of an activity or social process that inhibit a society's ability to adapt or adjust. When it comes to child abductors and sexual predators instead of them following the norms in society they choose to go against them which causes a major dysfunction. Their values which are collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a specific society are very much negative. Even though their aware of what the norms of a society are they don't care to break them or keep them stable in any way. The conflict perspective would view this social problem as persons who might have had bad things happen in their past and the things they do is out of anger and trying to some how get pleasure out of something that they know will cause others pain. Certain groups of people are privileged while others are disadvantaged through the unjust use of political, economic or social power. Also many sexual predators are people you would not expect. Many have regular jobs and live normal lives and use that to their advantage by thinking their less likely to be caught due to the way they live and how their social power for example helps them. If your a sunday school teacher who hosts fundraisers and is always donating to many organizations in the area , you would not be suspected or looked at right away compared to someone else who did not do wonderful things in the community. The symbolic interactionist perspective would view this social problem as persons who acted due to what others might have labeled them. For example John grew up and never really fit in anywhere, not even in his own family and one day his cousins saw him hit a squirrel with a sling shot out in the back of their barn and began to say he got thrills out of killing animals, which in all reality was not the case. Now just because they saw him kill the squirrel they begin to give him nicknames like "sicko" "freak" "weirdo" and things in that nature and very soon he ended up living up to that name just because thats what people labeled him as. Symbolic interactionist perspective call it self-fulfilling prophecy, an unsubstantiated belief or prediction results in behavior that makes the original false conception come true. For solutions to child abductions and sexual predators the functionalist perspective would try to find away for everyone to help keep the chances of this happening as low as possible by everyones help in the society. Such as law enforcement, and just regular people in society, owners of business and many other institutions such as schools. The Amber Alert is a perfect example of something that the functionalist perspective represent. Amber Alert is a child abduction bulletin in the U.S and Canada used when there is suspected abduction of a child, which was named after nine year old Amber Hagerman, who was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996. They also believe to reduce child abduction, other things in society should be strengthened so they can regenerate shared values and morality. From a Conflict Perspective view they would think that this social problem is unlikely to get rid of and that it would have to be examined on a micro-level, where you can really see how people who choose to abduct children live their lives. From a Symbolic Interactionist Perspective view they believe by changing the societal values that encourage the behavior of child abductors would lessing the social problem, also change must occur at the micro-level. Also agents of socialization have to transmit different attitudes towards child abduction. I would use micro analysis to investigate this social problem over macro because in this situation I think we need to figure out what causes people to do this. Which would involve getting a closer look at individuals and their lives and what they have been through in their past. Even in the 1960's child abduction was still as prevalent as it is now. If I was a sociologist who was given a grant to investigate this social problem I would go about researching Child Abduction by having interviews with all the child abductors who have been caught to try to understand why they do what they do and try to see if their reasoning is similar, which in the long run could help find was to decrease it or be aware of it as much as possibile. I would also interview all the families of the abducted child and find out things such as : where their child was abducted, had they been taught repeatedly never to go with strangers, how old they were when they were abducted, were they left alone by themselves or did they wander off, which could determine information to try to understand the circumstances. For example some children are abducted at parks, when the parent looks away for five seconds and their gone, or some are in shopping centers and the child is lured by the child predator. I would utilize the survey method the most, because in this situation the horrible act has already been committed and a group of set questions that would go out to all the families who's child was abducted can be answered and compared easily. Also some families might still be in deep pain over their child's abduction and might not want to be interviewed. I would also use the secondary analysis of existing data which could be very helpful as far as comparing past abductions from many years ago which you can then compare to current information, which I believe would make a better understanding of all my findings. Then field research would be my third choice, to try to interview the children who have been abducted and survived which would give probably the best information since they are the ones who experienced it first hand. Solutions I would propose be implemented in order to resolve this social problem would be to have more child abduction bulletins, so as soon as an abduction takes place everyone is alert and looking for the child because the first 24 hours is very crucial. I would also make it mandatory for all institutions to have surveillance on at all times throughout their institution. There is only but so much we can do to stop child abductors from doing what they do but we can try our hardest to work together and decrease this social problem as much as we can. Works Cited Yello Dyno, Inc. • "Yello Dyno" and the Yello Dyno character are federally registered trademarks of Yello Dyno, Inc. SCopyright 1994-2007