Preventing Child Abductions

Preventing Child Abductions

Rep. Boozman's Column for the Week of June 6, 2005

Ten years ago, little Morgan Nick disappeared from a ballpark in Alma while her mother was watching a youth baseball game. She was last seen playing with two other children in the park's sandbox.

An exhaustive search turned up no signs of the missing six-year old. Police look into hundreds of tips authorities received and follow dozens of leads, but all to no avail. Despite the intense effort of Alma police - plus the involvement of the FBI and "America's Most Wanted" TV show - Morgan is still missing to this day and her abductor is still at large.

Police believe Morgan's abductor was a stranger to her. An FBI profile indicates that Morgan's abductor was likely a child molester. In media reports, people familiar with the case, say the abductor "acted like a classic child predator, seizing access and opportunity when snatching the six-year old from an Alma ballpark in 1995."

If this turns out to be the case, it is not uncommon. However, experts say it's not the nameless, faceless stranger who's most likely to abduct children. They're in more danger of being harmed by a relative or someone who knows of them. Child predators often ingratiate themselves into the lives of their victims by becoming close to the child, family, or by just by moving into the neighborhood and stalking the child until the moment is right to make their move.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that 58,000 children vanish in America each year. The National Crime Information Center includes 349 active missing-children cases in Arkansas as of February, according to the Arkansas Missing Children Services Program.

When Morgan vanished, there weren't Amber Alerts and we didn't live in the 24-hour news-cycle like we do today. In fact, her abduction led to the creation of child abduction alerts in Arkansas. Patterned after the Amber Alert program started in Texas, law enforcement officials established a statewide program to spread news of child abductions to news media quickly. They named it the Morgan Nick Amber Alert. Arkansas' Morgan Nick Amber Alert program was the second statewide program in the nation.

With the passage of federal legislation, that I supported, Amber Alerts are now mandated across the country. Today, when a child goes missing and the alert is activated, news networks go into heavy coverage often enabling authorities to solve the case in a much quicker pace than the past.

Unfortunately, even with Amber Alerts and all-day news, authorities often are not able to find the child before his or her abductor turns into a murderer. Sexual predators and pedophiles often go unnoticed in communities until they strike. Once they do, there is not much time to react. Statistics show that children who are abducted by sexual predators that they do not know are usually killed within three hours of their kidnapping. Amber Alerts aid authorities and communities in a quick response to an abduction, but we need to work toward reducing the threat our children face.

There is a bill in the House of Representatives right now that will help authorities apprehend sexual predators before they can attack. The "Jessica Lundsford Act," which I have signed-on as a cosponsor, will add to the arsenal that law enforcement has at their disposal to address this issue.

The "Jessica Lundsford Act" is intended to provide greater accountability of sexual offenders and predators to local law enforcement agencies. In addition to requiring an increased number of address verifications throughout the year, the bill allows for the physical monitoring of repeat offenders. The bill also gives probation officers information about the specific status of offenders and predators and allows for judges to levy fines and/or jail time on offenders who fail to report in a timely manner.

There already are more tools available to parents and law enforcement then there were at the time of Morgan's abduction. For instance, Arkansas and other states have websites with the names, photos and addresses of registered sex offenders so that parents can warn their children who to be careful around in the neighborhood. Arkansas' site is www.acic.org. When you combine these steps with the provisions in the "Jessica Lundsford Act," parents and law enforcement will have more tools to prevent child abductions.

The ten-year anniversary of the abduction of Morgan Nick highlights the fact that we still have much work to do to protect our children from sexual offenders. National Amber Alerts were an important step and have helped us return abducted children home. Now, we must build on that success and implement reforms that will reduce the number of Amber Alerts that are activated.

http://www.boozman.house.gov/News/DocumentPrint.aspx?DocumentID=28419