Time Magazine: The U.S. Is Still Dealing With the Murder of Adam Walsh

Time Magazine posted an interesting article this morning about the abduction of Adam Walsh and how the tragedy misdirected our country’s focus on public safety.

Adam Walsh’s murder, the article states, was a catalyst for change in the way law enforcement dealt with abducted children. They wrote the event, “created a massive alarm about stranger abduction that, some experts say, distracted from the clear reality that most threats to children come from their family and close social network.”

The truth is, as the experts in the article confirm, is that stranger abduction is very rare. Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox cited FBI statistics that showed the number of missing children is far lower than what’s reported in the media.

“During the panic in the mid-1980s, for instance, it was widely reported that 1.5 million children were reported missing each year and 50,000 child abductions by strangers occurred each year — estimates that were inflated because they tended to include data on kids like runaway children or family members who had taken children in custody disputes. But the FBI only investigated 67 cases of children kidnapped by strangers in 1984.”

Yet, the media scares parents into thinking tens of thousands of children are being kidnapped and murdered each year, while that is extremely far from reality. Further, research from the Crimes against Children Research Center found that the number of missing children being killed has been declining for the past 15 to 20 years.

The murder of Adam Walsh is absolutely a tragedy – but what ensued in the enactment of the horribly misguided Adam Walsh Act and in the creation of a culture of children who are afraid to play outdoors is an even greater tragedy.