Skip to main content

Missing Children Statistics

I've wondered this for a long time - do white children go missing more than other ethnicities, or do we just care more?

First of all, don't misunderstand me - it is a tragedy when a white child goes missing. I'm not arguing that fact. But it is a tragedy when ANY child goes missing. And there are a lot of other kids that aren't being featured.

I've been wondering this for some time and just found some articles on it. There are some examples of black kids who have gone missing and not gotten much attention here. More statistics here. And a blog post about it here.

Thanks to one of my readers who pointed out the blog "Black and Missing."

I think there are two things going on here. First of all, minority children are assumed to be living in more dangerous areas, so it's less surprising when something happens to them. Second, all children are not valued in the same way. Sure, we would all say that every child is worthwhile and has the same inherent value. But if this were actually true, we wouldn't have such a discrepancy in education, health care, and other services between white and minority children. We just wouldn't put up with it.

I'd love to hear thoughts - what will it take to actually have us value all children equally? And for us to see it as a tragedy when something happens to any child, not just a child that looks like us?
Labels:

Comments

meloukhia said…
I was actually really surprised when I saw that post on Sociological Images, because I was under the impression that it's pretty common knowledge that missing children of color do not get as much attention as white children. As you said, any missing/abused child is a tragedy, no matter what the child's race is, but missing children of color seem to get a pretty rum deal from the system that is supposed to be protecting them.

I think that the only way to get people to value all children equally is to get people to value all people equally.
4:10 PM
House Dreams said…
A nonaesthetic monument stands at the Sonoma/Marin border. Faded, childish fake flowers and a resin angel mark the place, but try to take it down, even if it's on private property, and back up it goes. Georgia, 12, looking older, Black, young, tossed around from home to home may have run away. Is that an excuse to allow the friendly young man to end her life and leave her body? And why is he not tracked down!?
3:33 PM
Eddy E said…
There's a term for something very similar to your observations. Check out this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome
8:43 PM
Anonymous said…
It's the news media that makes the decision on who gets viewed most. Not normal everyday citizens. So if they are not showing your child enough than the parent needs to complain to the news channels. The more the parents complain the more news their child gets.
1:13 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Loss

  (I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why)  Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me.  He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me.  We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class....
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part Two

  Second very long part of the prison visit report.   After we got all the paperwork filled out and went through the metal detector, we got visitation slips with the name of the inmate, and made our way over to the other building for visitation. This is not maximum security so thankfully you can just sit next to the inmates, and not be separated by glass or have to use a telephone to talk.    First, you get a gate unlocked and go into a holding pen that is of course in direct sunlight (or rain if it's that season) and surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. You wait there until the gate at the other end is unlocked. This holding pen was a little bigger and less claustrophobic than the other prison (I do not have any claustrophobia and I came very close to a panic attack once at the other place) and they opened the other gate more quickly. Then you walk, again in blazing sunlight (or rain) to the visitation building. This one was less of a walk than the other pri...
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part 1

My former student, friend, and co-author was moved to a new prison during COVID. We (myself, Mitali, and his Abuela) have visited a couple of times via the video visit functionality they set up, but we've also been trying to visit in person, ever since in-person visits were allowed again. After four of them being canceled (sometimes we were told why, sometimes not), we finally got a visit. I was super nervous about this visit. (I felt better when Mitali mentioned that she was also, because she is an inherently positive and optimistic person!) I am not proud of this, but there was a large part of me that was hoping that the visit would be canceled, just like the previous four were. I felt a little better when someone I know messaged me privately to tell me that they had had very good experiences visiting a family member in that prison. But I still didn't sleep well at all that night, worrying about the guards, the many things that could go wrong, and the projected 111-degree hea...
Post a Comment
Read more