Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Statistics...

...file this under the "51% of all turns are right turns" headline.

There was a PSA on the other day that said, "Every day in America, approximately 2,000 children are reported missing." I have heard this statistic before, and I was thinking: 2,000 kids, 50 states. Ohio has roughly 4% if the population. So on average, 80 kids are reported missing every day. You would think that I would hear about at least, I don't know, ONE OF THEM!

I looked at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) website. They published the statistic. Apparently, there is a little more to it. 800,000 kids are reported missing each year. Narrow it down a little further. 115 kids in America each year are taken by a stranger and not returned. That's a little more like it. The rest can be filed under custody disputes, at a friends house, family members taking kids, runaways etc. Some of them are still very serious, and require law enforcement intervention. But my point is that kids are being picked up at every park, in every city in America.

I still think every dollar spent, every database, every program should be continued and every lead pursued - because 115 is way too many, and if we weren't doing everything we can, that number can go up.

But it makes me feel a little safer putting my kids on the school bus every morning.

2 comments:

Patti said...

maybe. but not safe enough to let them walk to school through a vacant lot!!

Race Bannon said...

Just after I posted this, we were notified of two incidents in our neighborhood where adult strangers approached kids, then an attempted abduction occured a few miles from the house!