Study Questions Effectiveness of Amber Alerts

A study led by a University of Nevada criminologist has questioned whether the Amber Alert system is really effective is locating persons who have been reported missing, and found that most “finds” are related to child custody-related incidents. There were 227 alerts generated during 2007, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which adds that since the system was created in 2003, there have been over 400 successful locates. But researcher Timothy Griffin says, “Amber Alert is a victim of its own fantastically good intentions,” says Griffin. “If someone gets ahold of a kid and has sufficiently nasty intentions, in the long run there’s not much we can do.” For example, Griffin found that in about 63% of Amber Alerts, the missing child would have been returned even without the alert. And in the remaining cases where the alert played a role in the return, the child was not in imminent danger. Read more about the research here. [Griffin’s research paper is available on-line for $25 here.]