NCJ Number
198065
Journal
Police: The Law Enforcement Magazine Volume: 26 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2002 Pages: 52,56,56
Date Published
October 2002
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article details the ways in which law enforcement agencies handle child abduction cases.
Abstract
Focusing on the crime of child abduction, this article discusses the ways that law enforcement agencies deal with this crime. After arguing that despite recent extensive media attention on the issue of child abduction, rates of child abduction have remained constant, the author then discusses this criminal problem highlighting recently highly publicized cases in San Diego, Salt Lake City, and Boulder. Following a discussion of the problem of copy-cat crimes in child abduction cases, the article presents an in-depth discussion of various child recovery tools designed to quickly locate missing children. Describing the Dialogic Communications Corporation’s high-speed police notification system, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, based non-profit organization called A Child is Missing, and the recently developed TRAK software, this author details several agencies’ attempts at locating and returning the victims of child abductions. Highlighting the Amber Alert system designed to turn the police and media into mutually supportive allies preventing child abductions and finding abducted children, the article emphasizes the need for various groups working together, nationwide, in order to halt the incidents of child abductions within the United States.