Influences On The Public Perception Of Missing Children

On October 7, 1994 in Beckton, London, England, while Daniel Handley was working on his bicycle, he was approached by two men in a Peugeot 405, who claimed to be lost and sought direction from Daniel on their map. Meanwhile, their fantasy was to abduct a young fair haired, pre-teen buy and sexually abuse him and kill him to hide their crime. With the map placed in the back seat of their car, as Daniel leaned in to look at it, he was pushed into the car and they drove off. At their flat, both men sexually abused him while the other videoed the activity. Then, Daniel was taken to a layby by Hungerford in Berkshire and strangled to death with a rope. His body was dumped in a shallow grave near Bristol and found in March 1995. This paper is to look at why child kidnapping and abuse happened and still happens to this day. To also look at “what kind of person would take pleasure from raping and killing a ten-year-old boy?”

Media coverage of news events can be disseminated to the general public in any number of different ways and media biases often “reflects certain organizational and/or professional preferences or values” (Bennett 2011, 173). In fact, Lundman (2003) points out “that journalists assess the newsworthiness of homicides occurrences using the relative frequency of particular types of murders and how well specific murder occurrences mesh with stereotypical race and gender typifications (357).” In addition, Johnson (2012) felt that the real job of media was to “create a message that…grabs public attention (62).” In other words, can the media grab the public’s attention and hold it?

According to the United States Department of Justice every forty seconds a child is being abducted. This works out to be about 2,000 abductions per day and 800,000 abductions per year. This would be 11.4 children per every 1,000 children being abducted. Seventy-five percent of abductions are committed by males. Sixty-seven percent of these perpetrators are under the age of twenty-nine. Seventy-four percent of children abducted are girls. Seventy-one percent of the kidnappers are strangers to the victims. Eighty percent of abductions occur within a quarter of a mile from where the child lives. Less than sixty of the children are returned to their families alive. Four percent of the children abducted are never found. Seventy-four

On October 7, 1994 in Beckton, London, England, while Daniel Handley was working on his bicycle, he was approached by two men in a Peugeot 405, who claimed to be lost and sought direction from Daniel on their map. Meanwhile, their fantasy was to abduct a young fair haired, pre-teen buy and sexually abuse him and kill him to hide their crime. With the map placed in the back seat of their car, as Daniel leaned in to look at it, he was pushed into the car and they drove off. At their flat, both men sexually abused him while the other videoed the activity. Then, Daniel was taken to a layby by Hungerford in Berkshire and strangled to death with a rope. His body was dumped in a shallow grave near Bristol and found in March 1995. This paper is to look at why child kidnapping and abuse happened and still happens to this day. To also look at “what kind of person would take pleasure from raping and killing a ten-year-old boy?”

Throughout the ages, media and society have been concerned over children. Instead of youth as folk devils, children nowadays serve as the victims of folk devils (Critcher, 2002, p.532). With these trigger events popping up, stereotypes are gradually formed. In recent British history, Paedophile had become one of the most terrifying folk-devils (Jenkins, 1992, p.99). Paedophile behaviour is a moral panic one legal case and the panic is generally fuelled by the sensationalism of media in

A non-family abduction occurs when a nonfamily perpetrator takes a child by using physical force, threat of bodily harm, or detaining the child for a substantial amount of time in an isolated location (Finkelhor, Hammer, & Sedlak, 2002). In 2002, 58,200 were estimated to have been abducted by a nonfamily perpetrator (Finkelhor, Hammer, & Sedlak, 2002). According to the FBI, there are four types of nonfamilial child abductors. The first type that the FBI identified is who we know as pedophiles. A pedophile can be defined as someone who is sexually attracted to young children (Dictionary, n.d.). They are also known to be the largest single category of child abductors (Burgess, Regehr, & Roberts, 2013). The second type identified is serial

On October 7, 1994 in Beckton, London, England, while Daniel Handley was working on his bicycle, he was approached by two men in a Peugeot 405, who claimed to be lost and sought direction from Daniel on their map. Meanwhile, their fantasy was to abduct a young fair haired, pre-teen buy and sexually abuse him and kill him to hide their crime. With the map placed in the back seat of their car, as Daniel leaned in to look at it, he was pushed into the car and they drove off. At their flat, both men sexually abused him while the other videoed the activity. Then, Daniel was taken to a layby by Hungerford in Berkshire and strangled to death with a rope. His body was dumped in a shallow grave near Bristol and found in March 1995. This paper is to look at why child kidnapping and abuse happened and still happens to this day. To also look at “what kind of person would take pleasure from raping and killing a ten-year-old boy?”

There have been many federal acts passed in correspondence with sex offenses that illicit feat with the public. There are many different types of ways in which Levenson & colleagues’ (2007) describes the perceptions that the public has based on certain factors. For instance, in relation to the perception about the sex offender notification system, a survey produced results of around 80 percent in favor of these registries, because these individuals felt safer in their communities knowing who was in their neighborhood. Further, due to this fear that resonated in the early 1990’s communities do have tools such as residential restrictions, civil commitment, notification procedures, etc. that aid in the protection. However, there are myths associated with sex offenders, for example legislation often states that the reasoning for new laws and regulations is due to the high recidivism rates. However, sex offenders have significantly lower recidivism rates than believed. Also, there are countless people who do not believe that sex offenders can be assisted with techniques from a psychological standpoint. Most people think that these offenders cannot be treated, however, there is research being conducted that is promising. Finally, there is a common misconception that sex offenders kill their victims, especially children more often than other killers, however this is not true.

Particularly due to the age of the killers, the ferociousness of the crime and the age of the victim, the mass media reports allowed the public to get personally and emotionally involved in the case and have severe anger and resentment towards the children who murdered James Bulger. The public outcry was huge and, the decision by the politicians and press

For 30 years, advocates, program administrators, and politicians have joined to encourage even more reports of suspected child abuse and neglect. Their efforts have been successful, with about three million cases of suspected child abuse having been reported in 1993. Large numbers of endangered children still go unreported, but a serious problem had developed: Upon investigation, as many as 65 percent or the reports now being made are determined to be "unsubstantiated", raising serious civil liberties concerns and placing a huge burden on investigative staffs.

Many of us were raised knowing the story of Daniel Morcombe, the thirteen year old boy snatched from a bus station found murdered with the intention of rape, 8 years laters. Before the murder of Daniel, Brent Peter Cowan was a known child sex offender who had two previous offences with minimal penalty. In an interview with police Cowan stated “I never got to molest him or anything like that. He panicked and I panicked and grabbed him around the throat and before I knew it he was dead.” Daniel is one of many innocent and trusting children who have fallen victim to these vicious repeat offenders. Outside of the family, the first people thought to be responsible when a child is murdered, raped or abducted tend to be sex offenders in the area, so why must a child endure such a heinous act before this information is revealed to the public? I firmly believe that communities should be notified if and when a known predator on the paedophile and sex offenders registry has entered their neighbourhood. (Quite engaging, with a strong contention.)

The purpose of this PSA is to raise awareness of all the kids that are missing and that other kids go missing all the time. The persuasive techniques that are being used are appeal to fear and appeal to pity. The appeal of fear is used with the fact that “kids go missing every 40 seconds” because it makes parents or other family members scared for their children and would want to keep them safe. Also, people would be scared for the children that are missing. The appeal to pity is used to make people feel bad for the family of the missing children and feel terrible for the child that is missing. The appeal to pity and appeal to fear are both very effective. Children that go missing is already a very sad topic that can make people become very

The case of six-year old Adam Walsh is perhaps one that will never leave the minds of anyone initially horrified by its details. In 1981 young Adam was kidnapped from a local mall and regardless of tireless efforts by his parents John and Reve Walsh, volunteers, and law enforcement; Adam fell victim to murder. Two weeks after the boy went missing, his decapitated head was located, but his body was never found. This prompted his father John Walsh to start a campaign and legislature policy submission toward more stringent accountability for child crime offenders. “The murder transformed John Walsh's life, turning him from a middle-class hotel marketing executive into one of country's best known advocates for missing

This essay will look at how various forms of media examine female and child offenders, and how these same criminals can also be viewed as being victims. The media is able to shape the way the public perceive a certain criminal through aspects such as personal information, history of violence and appearance (Fries, 1820). Therefore, creating the opportunity to generate a media story in which the ideal criminal is involved. Included within the essay will be how the medias fixation with gendered and social norms can cause a female or child offender to be considered as being depraved. Also, this essay will demonstrate how today’s media supports the now discredited theory of criminologist, Cesare Lombroso, that asserted physical attributes

Child abuse is a prevalent thing in communities and often time the victims are suffering in silence. We, as a society, have a bad habit of “turning our heads the other way” or “not wanting to get involved.” The mentality of “it’s none of our business” is an extremely dangerous mind set to have. It is time for America to step up and start helping the ones that are not able to fight for themselves. The children of our country.