Abstract
Children go missing for many reasons. However, regardless of the characteristics of the child who is missing or of the type of event that precipitated his disappearance, children who are missing are at risk for other forms of victimization, outside the mere experience of being missing. This chapter will provide a theoretical framework for thinking about these secondary victimizations along with an examination of what we know about the incidence of these types of victimization. Two key questions will be examined—to what extent does the experience of being missing increase a child’s risk for other victimization? To what extent does experiencing a secondary victimization affect the overall impact of being a missing child?
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Notes
- 1.
A stereotypical abduction in the study was defined as one in which the offender was a stranger to the child and which involved any one of the following characteristics: the child was gone overnight, the child was killed, the child was taken more than 50 miles from the original site, there was an attempt to ransom the child, or there was evidence that the offender meant to keep the child permanently (Sedlak et al., 2002).
- 2.
A Nonfamily abduction in the study was defined as one in which “a nonfamily perpetrator takes a child by the use of physical force or threat of bodily harm or detains a child for at least 1 h in an isolated place by the use of physical force or threat of bodily harm without lawful authority or parental permission; or when a child who is younger than 15…or is mentally incompetent, without lawful authority or parental permission is taken or detained by or voluntarily accompanies a nonfamily perpetrator who conceals the child’s whereabouts, demands ransom, or expresses the intention to keep the child permanently” (Sedlak et al., 2002).
- 3.
The NIBRS kidnapping cases include those in which the offender relationship is identified as “family,” as well as those in which offenders are acquaintances and strangers. It is unclear the degree to which these “family” kidnappings resemble a more traditional conception of “family abductions.”
- 4.
A third wave of data collection, NISMART-3, is expected soon.
- 5.
See Plass (2007) for complete methodological information on these data.
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Plass, P.S. (2016). Secondary Victimization in Missing Children Events. In: Morewitz, S., Sturdy Colls, C. (eds) Handbook of Missing Persons. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40199-7_5
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