Homicides of Children and Youth

Excerpt p-10: Must read pgs 8-11 for details.

Source:Federal Bureau of Investigation. Uniform Crime Reporting Data: U.S. Supplementary Homicide Reports 1980–1997. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, 1997 [machine-readable data files].

October 2001:

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is committed to improving the justice system’s response to crimes against children. OJJDP recognizes that children are at increased risk for crime victimization. Not only are children the victims of many of the same crimes that victimize adults, they are subject to other crimes, like child abuse and neglect, that are specific to childhood. The impact of these crimes on young victims can be devastating, and the violent or sexual victimization of children can often lead to an intergenerational cycle of violence and abuse. The purpose of OJJDP’s Crimes Against Children Series is to improve and expand the Nation’s efforts to better serve child victims by presenting the latest information about child victimization, including analyses of crime victimization statistics, studies of child victims and their special needs, and descriptions of programs and approaches that address these needs.

Murders of children and youth, the ultimate form of juvenile victimization, have received a great deal of deserved publicity in recent years.1 Yet, while images of Polly Klaas and student victims at Columbine High School are vivid in the public’s mind, statistics on juvenile murder victims are not. Substantial misunderstandings exist about the magnitude of and trends in juvenile homicide and the types of children at risk of becoming victims of different types of homicide.

This Bulletin gives a brief statistical portrait of various facets of child and youth homicide victimization in the United States. It draws heavily on homicide data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHRs), which are part of the Bureau’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program; however, it also relies on a variety of other studies and statistical sources.

Highlights of the findings presented in this Bulletin include the following:

u In 1999, about 1,800 juveniles (a rate of 2.6 per 100,000) were victims of homicide in the United States. This rate is substantially higher than that of any other developed country.

u Homicides of juveniles in the United States are unevenly distributed, both geographically and demographically. Rates are substantially higher for African American juveniles and for juveniles in certain jurisdictions. Yet, 85 percent of all U.S. counties had no homicides of juveniles in 1997.

u Homicides of young children (age 5 and younger), children in middle childhood (ages 6 to 11), and teenagers (ages 12 to 17)2 differ on a number of dimensions, suggesting that they should be analyzed separately.

u Most homicides of young children are committed by family members through beatings or suffocation. Although victims include approximately equal numbers of boys and girls, offenders include a disproportionate number of women. Homicides of young children may be seriously undercounted.

u Middle childhood is a time when a child’s homicide risk is relatively low. Homicides of children in middle childhood show a mixed pattern. Some result from child maltreatment and others from the use of firearms. Some are sexually motivated, and some are committed as part of multiple-victim family homicides.

u Homicides of teenagers, most of which involve male victims killed by male offenders using firearms, rose dramatically in the late 1980s and early 1990s but have declined sharply since 1993. ..more.. by David Finkelhor and Richard Ormrod

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Child abduction murders rare

2-8-2004 National:

The average victim of child abduction and murder is an 11-year-old girl considered a low-risk, "normal" child from a middle-class neighborhood. She has a stable family relationship. And her initial contact with an abductor occurs within a quarter-mile of her home.
That description is from a seminal study by the Washington State Attorney General's Office. And it could be a description of Carlie Brucia, the Sarasota girl whose body was found early Friday a short distance from the carwash where a surveillance camera recorded her abduction on Feb 1. Joseph Smith, 37, a mechanic with a lengthy arrest record, is charged with kidnapping and murder.

Child abduction experts say that in 74% of cases in which a child is abducted and killed, the child is dead within three hours of the abduction.

"When this happens, (the victims) aren't being taken and driven around in a car for a couple of weeks," says Joe Weis, professor of sociology at the University of Washington and a co-author of the Washington study. "The abductors are very typically killing them in a very short period of time."

Experts are quick to point out that the overwhelming majority of child abductions end with the victim being safely returned home. Child abduction murders are "pretty rare compared to the total number of reported missing kids," Weis says. "People are probably more afraid and concerned than the numbers would reflect."

The videotaped images of Carlie's abduction, and the apparent ease with which her captor was able to take her, struck dread in the hearts of many parents across the nation. The Web site of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which gets about 400,000 parental requests for information on an average day, got about 2 million on Friday.

Experts say the visceral public reaction is understandable given the circumstances. "I really think this case has hit a nerve," center president Ernie Allen says. "And I really think that is a result of the video {ndash}{ndash} the average American sitting at home watching their television and seeing how easy it was for this character to take this child."

In Sarasota, the case has hit the public especially hard. During the weekend, dozens of mourners left flowers, stuffed animals and notes at the small ranch house where the 11-year-old sixth-grader lived with her mother, stepfather and brother, 6. A circuit court judge who handled Smith's recent probation hearings says he has received death threats from people outraged that Smith was on probation after a history of arrests.

A public memorial service for Carlie is planned Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. outside Central Church of Christ, near where the girl's body was found.

About 800,000 children are reported missing each year, and about 58,200 of these involve non-family abductions, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's most recent assessment of missing children. About 115 of these are the most serious kind, in which the abductor intends to keep the child permanently, the child is gone overnight, is killed, transported 50 miles or more, or is ransomed. One-third of the most serious cases result in the child being killed, the October 2002 study found.

"That's a terrible number, but a larger number do not end with the death of a child," Allen says. "You don't have to live in fear. You don't have to be paralyzed by fear. But you need to be cautious and prepared."

The Washington State Attorney General's Office study, which examined more than 600 child abduction murder cases between 1993 and 1997, found that when an abducted child is killed, it happens within 24 hours 94% of the time.

"That is true," Allen says. "But it's also important to point out that we do recover children after days and weeks and months and even years.

"It is very much a function of what the abductor's motivations are. The overwhelming majority (of non-family abductions) are sexual, and all sex offenders are not child killers."

Allen also points out that "Amber Alerts," in which the public is instantly notified about child abductions, are now used in many places. And they have led to the safe recovery of 123 children. All 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico now have clearinghouses for sharing information on missing children.

Meanwhile, Carlie's family wants the state to investigate how it was that Smith was free. The convicted drug felon was on probation despite a long criminal history.

"I really find the decision made by some of these judges very questionable," said Joe Brucia, Carlie's father. "I would ask the governor to look into this." ..more.. by Larry Copeland, USA TODAY

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Case Management for Missing Children Homicide Investigation

May 2006

Excerpt: "Research has shown that between 40 and 150 incidents of child abduction murder occur each year, which is less than one half of one percent of the murders committed nationally."

No statistics exist to document how many of these are the result of PREVIOUSLY convicted sex offenders, however, some of these murders have an element of sexual contact as part of the murder and it may be a first sex offense for the offender. eAdvocate

See also the NISMART Series of reports: National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART) Reports

And: Homicides of Children and Youths

Executive Summary:
Cases of abducted and missing children found murdered continue to traumatize victims' families and friends and the public. While these cases are still quite rare, with the amount of national and international media attention they are given, we too quickly recognize the victims' names.

Our first research into this subject was "undertaken in an effort to better understand these types of murders and to identity investigative techniques and strategies that will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal investrgatrons and the apprehension rate of murderers who abduct children." This follow-up research continues that effort.

We collected 175 solved cases and added them to the orieinal data set. We obtained the new cases from agencies of all sizes in the United States and even went to some states not included in the original survey.

The additronal cases are reflective and supportive of the original report with several significant and definite differences between the first study and this one. With more killers identified, we find that the relationships between them and their victims change from strangers to an almost equal likelihood of being friends / acquaintences. The probability of the killer's name coming up during the first week of the investigation decreases. Another srgnificant change is the increase of the use of pornography by killers as a trigger. This should not be surprising, given the overwhelming sexual motivation of killers in these cases.

Victims continue to be females slightlv over 11 years of age, leading normal lives and living with normal families - typical low-risk victims. The initial contact between the victim and killer is still within 1/4 mile of the victim's residence.

The killers remain around 27 years old and are predominately unmarried, with half of them living either alone or with their parents. Half of them are unemployed, and those who are employed work in unskilled or semi-skilled
occupations.

More than half of these cases are initially reported to a law enforcement agency as a "missing child." Fast action is necessary since there is typically over a two-hour delay in making the initial missing child report, and the vast majority of the abducted children who are murdered are dead within three hours of the abduction.

One question answered by this research is this. What can we tell parents to help them protect their children? Even though child abductron murders are rare, parents must eliminate, or minimize, the opportunity for their children to become victims. We need to tell parents that if their child is unaccounted for, call the police immediately.

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Child abduction murder is every parent's worst nightmare. To compound the problem, child abduction murders are incredibly difficult to solve and deeply impact law enforcement officials involved in the investigation. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), abductions resulting in a child's death present many investigative and emotional obstacles for law enforcement officers (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 2000). Hanfland. Keppel, and Weis (1997) state that the rarity of child abduction murders, even among criminal homicides, and their complex, emotion-laden, high profiles, make them extremely difficult to investigate.

The 1979 abduction of seven-year-old Etan Patz and the 1981 abduction and murder of six-year-old Adam Walsh terrified parents throughout the nation. As a result of the notoriety of these cases, inflated and unsubstantiated numbers of missing children were widely reported to be over 2 million per year. The number of children who were abducted and then murdered was erroneously reported to be as high as 5,000 per year (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children,2000).

The public outcry over concern for the safety of America's children contributed to the establishment ofthe National Center for Missing and Exploited Children by the United States Congress. To the contrary, careful research has shown that between 40 and 150 incidents of child abduction murder occur each year, which is less than one half of one percent of the murders committed nationally. On average, there is one child abduction murder for every 10,000 reports of a missing child (Finklehor. Hotaling & Sedlalq 1992).

Missing and Abducted Children Statistics

Missing children cases are tipically placed into five categories: family abduction, nonfamily abduction, runawavs, throwaway or abandoned children, and children who become lost or injured (Baker, Rurgess. Rabun, & Nahirny, 2002). In 1988, an estimated 354,100 family abducttons occurred. Forty-six percent of those abductions involved concealment of a child, out of state transportation or the intent to keep the child indefinitely or to permanently alter custody.

During this period, an estimated 3,200 to 4,600 nonfamily abductions were known to police (Finklehor et al.. 1992). Unfortunately, less than 5% of those types of cases are reported to police (Hanfland. et al.. 1997), and they are more likely to result in harm or death. Approximately 200 to 300 of them were stereotipical kidnappings in which the child was transported a distance of more than 50 feet or kept over night. An estimated 446,700 children ran away during this period, and approximately 127,100 children were told to leave their home or were abandoned (Finklehor et aI., 1992).

Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to gather accurate information on child abduction for a variety of reasons. Existing studies on child abduction are limited in scope, and there are discrepancies in the statistical information produced. Boudreaux, Lord, and Etter (2000) propose an explanation for the deficiencies in dataon child abduction: ..more.. by Rob McKenna, Attorney General of Washington -and- U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

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