Why isn't our society freaking out over this?

Treebore

First Post

• Apr 19, 2007

• #1

"According the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC)


85% to 90% of the 876,213 persons reported missing to America’s law enforcement agencies in 2000 were juveniles (persons under 18 years of age). That means that 2,100 times per day parents or primary care givers felt the disappearance was serious enough to call law enforcement.

152,265 of the persons reported missing in 2000 were categorized as either endangered or involuntary.

The number of missing persons reported to law enforcement has increased from 154, 341 in 1982 to 876,213 in 2000. That is an increase of 468%."


The worst year was 1.4 million people, which was in just the last 5 years (I don't remember which year it was).

Its bad enough about adults, but over 700,000 to over 1 MILLION kids under the age of 18 go missing every year. This is JUST IN THE USA.

Why isn't our society freaking out over this?

 

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Bront

The man with the probe

• Apr 19, 2007

• #2

Because not everyone is in the US

And politics could come into it, so it's a fine line to walk here at Enworld.

However, what are the recovery statistics? How many were false claims? How do we know it's simply more people reported instead of more actualy happening?

 

Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero

• Apr 19, 2007

• #3

Go down to your local police station and ask to look at the police log. Most of those "missing people" are -- and I wish I was making this up -- unruly teenagers their parents can't control, so they call the cops when the kid leaves to go spend the night with the post-high school boyfriend they don't approve of, or whatever. I read the police logs for my job, and I see it every week.

The overwhelming majority of missing persons aren't. Your post alone says that 7 out of 8 of those people aren't in any sort of danger according to the authorities.

 

L

lamproswc

First Post

• Apr 19, 2007

• #4

Some people are, it just isn't always leading to productive action.

Also, keep in mind: Most of those are non-custodial kidnappings (Mommy got custody, Daddy wanted to see his kids too) and run-aways. Which are still bad, just keep it in mind.

 

Aurora

First Post

• Apr 19, 2007

• #5

Most people have a "it will never happen to me" attitude about just about anything bad that can happen. Even though the number of actual abductions aren't as high as the numbers you gave, they still occur every day, and *I* am scared about it. Mainly because abductions have touched my family twice. My dad's girlfriend was kidnapped, raped and murdered when they were 16 and I was kidnapped when I was 2 (no, they didn't get away with me or I am sure I wouldn't be here). As you can imagine my father was a little on the protective side with me (with good reason), and in a way this has instilled the fear in myself with my own children.

One of my worst recurring nightmares involves an abduction. :\

 

Thornir Alekeg

Albatross!

• Apr 19, 2007

• #6

I think part of it is, due to media coverage and the like, people are faster to contact the police than they used to be. The increase also may influenced by improved reporting to the central database. Perhaps in 1982 the local police in North Nowhere didn't send the information to the FBI, but now they do.

I pulled up a 2006 report from the FBI. I thought some of this was interesting:

FBI website said:

As of December 31, 2006, there were 110,484 active missing person records in the NCIC. Juveniles under the age of 18 account for 58,763 (53.18 %) of the records and 12,657 (11.46 %) were for juveniles between the ages of 18 and 20. *

During 2006, 836,131 missing person records were entered into the NCIC, an increase of 0.19 % from the 834,536 entered in 2005. Missing Person records cleared or canceled during the same period totaled 851,940. Reasons for these removals include: a law enforcement agency located the subject, the individual returned home, or the record had to be removed by the entering agency due to a determination that the record is invalid.

Click to expand...

Further down the page there is a table showing the number of records entered and removed each year since 1990. It appears the number of records removed is always very close to the number reported. So it would appear that the number of reports is increasing, but the number of cases closed seems to be keeping pace.

The page can be found here.

 

Ostlander

First Post

• Apr 26, 2007

• #7

It's just creepy and I WILL keep politics out of this; it's a human issue and that's even creepier if one looks between the lines of reality here. The very thing that makes us a successful species is deteriorating on a massive scale. Believe it or not; it's our ability to band together and cooperate that makes us the so-called dominant life form on Earth. People will maul each other for sure, but throw in a non-human threat and woe to the critters that mess with us and watch how people who hated each other an hour before pull their fellow humans out of the rubble after a disaster.

Some may say there's always been these predators lurking about and it's our relatively recent ability to exchange information instantly that makes the issue seem so new and horrifying.

Nah it is new and the trend is horrifying. There's a subculture of predators out there and it's growing like a cancer. As they grow the number of missing people seems to grow right with them...coincidence?

I've attempted to offer some feeble solutions to the problem, but they never go anywhere without politics or religion getting into the mix.

As to WHY people are not freaking out...they do when it happens to them, their family and friends, their neighborhoods, etc...Until then it's Reality TV and fast food to make all those baddies out there seem like a distant bad memory.

 

Relique du Madde

Adventurer

• Apr 26, 2007

• #8

I think people don't freak out because all those thousands and millions of people are nameless and faceless. If someone famous and highly respected vanishes, say a world leader, director or a celebrity, then and only then people would freak out because "if the Pope or Angelina Jolie could vanish then maybe I could also."

 

frankthedm

First Post

• Apr 26, 2007

• #9

The electronic age, the internet and the drug trade has allowed many individuals across the globe to gain small to large fortunes. I just assume a portion of those folks with questionable morals are fueling the human slave trade.

 

Ostlander

First Post

• Apr 26, 2007

• #10

That's even scarier...if famous, then people care. Why? We should care about them all.

Drug trade...maybe, but there's something more insidious taking place here...something evil...evil in the universal sense of the word. Who or what could take children...the innocent of the innocent?