Missing Children

Changes facilitating the increase in abductions in the United States are (1) the increase in two-career parents and single heads of households that leave more children home alone; (2) urbanization, suburbanization, and the geographic mobility of today's workforce that lead families to move into communities with no family or friends to provide a safety net for children; (3) inadequate criminal data banks that make running background checks on would-be abusers difficult for schools, day-care, and youth organizations; and (4) the lack of cooperation between governmental agencies that impedes tracing abductors across state lines (Stepp 1994).