Elizabeth Smart and her mother with former Pres. George Bush[/caption]Carol Forsloff --Years ago parents worried about their children’s safety on dark, lonely streets; but in contemporary America, the risks of violence to children often come in their own neighborhoods and within intimate friend and family circles, leading to the death of these children as well as the violation of trust.
Ayla Reynolds had been living with her father at the time she went missing just weeks ago. Police now suspect foul play, as both parents are said to be cooperating with authorities to help locate the child. At the same time, there are concerns about the overall safety of the child, who may have taken her and what the ultimate outcome might be in the search efforts. But it is another incidence of a child being taken from her own bedroom, and the complexities that are involved in determining what has happened to the child. It also reveals how safety and security of children can be imperiled in circumstances that years ago were regarded as particularly safe. It also upsets family relationships, raises issues about the public’s right to know intimate details, and offers disturbing consequences to social relationships over time.
One of the most prominent examples of rush to judgment coupled with public’s heightened emotions and opinions and the serious problems created for a family that may last for years to come is the Jon Benet Ramsey case. The body of Jon Benet, a six-year-old beauty queen, was found in the basement of her Colorado upscale neighborhood the day after Christmas 1996. The father, John Ramsey, a wealthy businessman, was under scrutiny by some folks, who pointed to how he delayed contacting authorities, to characteristics of his writing that could compare in some ways with the ransom note found in the home, and other personal characteristics that were analyzed critically, and sometimes erroneously, by the press and the reading public. Many of these details were misinterpreted or found later to have no relationship to the actual case. At the same time, other factions of the media, and an eager public driven by the “right to know,” suggested the mother, Patsy Ramsey, was guilty of killing her own daughter, leaving the child in a grotesque position afterward to disguise her involvement. Furthermore ,the ransom note was examined by handwriting “experts,” some who definitely pointed to writing characteristics they said proved the mother’s guilt.
Over the years speculation continues over the famous case of the strangulation death of Jon Benet Ramsey, withmore recent hypotheses made about the potential involvement of Jon Benet’s own brother, Burke, who was 11 years old at the time of his sister’s death, being reviewed by both authorities and the press as recently as 2009. In the meantime both parents have been exonerated, with apologies made by the police and investigative authorities in Boulder, Colorado, the place where the Ramsey had been living at the time of Jon Benet’s death.
“Today is a wonderful day,” Smart was reported to have said outside the courthouse hours after the conviction of her kidnapper. She summarized her feelings, adding “I am so thrilled to be here, so thrilled of the verdict."MSNBC reported Elizabeth Smart’s summary statement following the guilty verdict given Brian David Mitchell for having kidnapped and raping her over a period of nine months, after taking her from her family home in 2002 when she was only 14 years old. She was finally found, those months later, after being seen in Salt Lake City walking along a street with Mitchell and his common-law-wife. Although the case had its “happy ending,” it is one of those that points to how safety of children is imperiled in a modern world where the old-style vigilance of neighbors is not the same as it once was in the small-town areas of the country decades ago.
Crime prevention experts tell us that more than 5000 children are victimized violently every day. Authorities now point to cautions parents should take for their children in their own homes and neighborhoods, because these areas are no longer defined as those personal safety zones they once were thought to be. They offer safety tips for parents, children and neighborhoods that point to the need of vigilance on all fronts, both within the home and the areas where children play, work and attend school. What these experts maintain is that adage “it takes a village” to protect children and to prevent those innocents from being kidnapped or killed, while the rush to judgment about these cases is said to interfere with the investigation and outcome and therefore should be treated cautiously by the law, the media and the public.