Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Entry#12: Research on Child Abduction Response.
I did some research about child abduction, hoping to find about the trauma victims of child abduction have. I thought I would find some solid, cruel facts. However, what I came up with was more than cruel-It was very twisted. Children who are abducted at a young age often suffer little to no psychological trauma at all. You'd think this was good, right? Well, think again.
The reason their abductions don't haunt them isn't that abductors who target children very young are kinder to them than people who abduct kids closer to their teens. It isn't that because their very young, they'll totally forget about all that has happened to them later.
Children who are abducted before they reach around 8 years old have no clue that what is happening to them is wrong. They often don't even know they're in danger. Because that's the tricky thing about abductors, they lull children into a false sense of security. I've heard way too many stories of kids who only get found when they are nearing adulthood; children who were repeatedly raped and otherwise violated, who were comfortable with their lives before they were saved. I distinctly remember hearing a story on the today show of a woman who was abducted when she was 7, and never tried to leave. She actually had 3 of her abductor's children.
That actually appalls me. It scares me. And the deep root is that these kids are too young to know what is right and what isn't yet. They can be persuaded easily. Kids believe abductors who tell them that their parents were just lying to him or her, to keep them from from having fun. Kids believe abductors when they say that the reason they're hurting them is because they love them. And kids are so easily impressionable that the beliefs of their abductors often stay their beliefs.
For instance, there is the case of David Goldman trying to retrieve his son Sean from Brazil.
Although it's true that Sean wasn't treated poorly in Brazil, how he was snatched is illegal and immoral. However, Sean didn't want to go back home to his father. No, he wanted to stay with the family he'd lived with his whole life; no matter the circumstances of how he got there. In Sean's perspective, a man he hadn't seen in over five years was trying to bring him back to a life he didn't want to go to. Although much of the reason it took so long to return Sean to David was the Brazilian government not acting; Sean also didn't want to return. The family he was living with had convinced him that they were who he really belonged with, and Sean is a child, impressionable.
This case and so many others show the cruelty of abduction. Not only does it take children from their parents, split apart families, leave physical marks on children and leave mental marks, children who were abducted and then rescued often hate their life after they get saved.
Really, it comes down to who we are as humans. Not just kids. As humans, we love the familiar. We believe what we are told and find it hard to question what we are told. And that one "insignificant" flaw can be the difference of a child who tries to escape and a child who is willing to stay in a dangerous situation.
OTHER FACTS:
-Girls between ages 10 and 14 are most at risk of attempted abduction. It scares me that I fit into this group.
-A large portion of children who are abducted are abducted by family. This happens often when parents divorce and one parent gets full custody of the kids while the other never gets to see them. This often makes the other parent do crazy things. Because the children are familiar with who has taken them, they often don't see it as an abduction. This happened to my 2nd cousin.
-In most cases of attempted abduction, kids' own pure strength and resistance help them get away. In only 16% of cases do adults step in to help.
The reason their abductions don't haunt them isn't that abductors who target children very young are kinder to them than people who abduct kids closer to their teens. It isn't that because their very young, they'll totally forget about all that has happened to them later.
Children who are abducted before they reach around 8 years old have no clue that what is happening to them is wrong. They often don't even know they're in danger. Because that's the tricky thing about abductors, they lull children into a false sense of security. I've heard way too many stories of kids who only get found when they are nearing adulthood; children who were repeatedly raped and otherwise violated, who were comfortable with their lives before they were saved. I distinctly remember hearing a story on the today show of a woman who was abducted when she was 7, and never tried to leave. She actually had 3 of her abductor's children.
That actually appalls me. It scares me. And the deep root is that these kids are too young to know what is right and what isn't yet. They can be persuaded easily. Kids believe abductors who tell them that their parents were just lying to him or her, to keep them from from having fun. Kids believe abductors when they say that the reason they're hurting them is because they love them. And kids are so easily impressionable that the beliefs of their abductors often stay their beliefs.
For instance, there is the case of David Goldman trying to retrieve his son Sean from Brazil.
Although it's true that Sean wasn't treated poorly in Brazil, how he was snatched is illegal and immoral. However, Sean didn't want to go back home to his father. No, he wanted to stay with the family he'd lived with his whole life; no matter the circumstances of how he got there. In Sean's perspective, a man he hadn't seen in over five years was trying to bring him back to a life he didn't want to go to. Although much of the reason it took so long to return Sean to David was the Brazilian government not acting; Sean also didn't want to return. The family he was living with had convinced him that they were who he really belonged with, and Sean is a child, impressionable.
This case and so many others show the cruelty of abduction. Not only does it take children from their parents, split apart families, leave physical marks on children and leave mental marks, children who were abducted and then rescued often hate their life after they get saved.
Really, it comes down to who we are as humans. Not just kids. As humans, we love the familiar. We believe what we are told and find it hard to question what we are told. And that one "insignificant" flaw can be the difference of a child who tries to escape and a child who is willing to stay in a dangerous situation.
OTHER FACTS:
-Girls between ages 10 and 14 are most at risk of attempted abduction. It scares me that I fit into this group.
-A large portion of children who are abducted are abducted by family. This happens often when parents divorce and one parent gets full custody of the kids while the other never gets to see them. This often makes the other parent do crazy things. Because the children are familiar with who has taken them, they often don't see it as an abduction. This happened to my 2nd cousin.
-In most cases of attempted abduction, kids' own pure strength and resistance help them get away. In only 16% of cases do adults step in to help.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Social Awareness Week 2-Two more things off of the list.
Analyze Social Problems In IRP.
Well, currently I'm not really reading a book with outlying social injustices.
So I'm going to go back to "Story Of A Girl", which I read in about a day a little while ago.
Story Of A Girl is a novel by Sara Zarr, about how the life of a small-town girl is completely turned around when she is caught having sex with a high school junior-at thirteen. For the rest of her high school life, everyone thinks of her as the school slut, because nobody forgets these things in small towns. Or anywhere, really.
Some of the issues in this book just deal with how unfair society is: How we are all programmed to believe in certain things, and we can't break this programming; how people are never really forgiven; the ways we label people; and what we'll do merely to do something.
In the town the character, Deanna, lives in, there really isn't anything to do. And so she does what teenagers are supposed to do in small towns when they have nothing better to do-get drunk, high, have sex and be stupid.And she gets a reputation for being a slut that no matter what, she can't rub off. I am so happy to live in New York where there are actual things to do with my time.
Another issue in the class system in our country. Deanna has it tough because she lives in the less wealthy section of her town. And just because she doesn't have a family with income, it basically prevents her from leading a healthy life. Her parents are never home, she does no extracurriculars, her brother Darren and his girlfriend live in her parent's basement. Their the typical "white trash" family-- teenaged boy knocks up girlfriend, and they have no means of their own income because they're busy caring for the baby.
Deanna herself has no aspirations, she accepts the hardships of her life and she doesn't even try to run away from them. She works in a Pizzeria, hoping to get enough money so she can rent an apartment with her brother when she turns 18. She doesn't even want to go to college. It's truly upsetting that just being born from a family with low income assures you a bad life. It really is sad.
A True Story About Someone Who Changes The World Every Day
The Dalai Lama is someone who changes the world every day. In fact, it's hard to come up with a story on him just because it seems like every other day he is enlightening new people.
This isn't biased, I'm not talking about his buddhism speeches. I'm not writing this because I'm a strong buddhist, in fact I have no religion. But the Dalai Lama teaches about peace, and how we can work to make our world peaceful.
The Dalai Lama won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, at the age of 59, and even now as he gets older he continues to fly around delivering his messages of peace to everyone. After 9/11, he delivered a speech that many people took into mind. He doesn't just fund causes to earn the name of a good person. He really cares. His speech on 9/11 was so moving that it made many people cry. In it, he talked of how events of this kind of hatred "make it clear that if we allow our human intelligence to be guided and controlled by negative emotions like hatred, the consequences are disastrous." He analyzes our souls in ways that make it clear how truly brilliant he is. (Okay, this is starting to sound really stupid.)
Also in his 9/11 speech, he gives americans guidelines for how to respond to an attack like this. He doesn't just hate the people who committed the crime, he digs deeper into why the did what he did. For more on his 9/11 speech: http://www.dalailama.com/messages/world-peace/9-11
That speech is just one of the many he has delivered.
Well, currently I'm not really reading a book with outlying social injustices.
So I'm going to go back to "Story Of A Girl", which I read in about a day a little while ago.
Story Of A Girl is a novel by Sara Zarr, about how the life of a small-town girl is completely turned around when she is caught having sex with a high school junior-at thirteen. For the rest of her high school life, everyone thinks of her as the school slut, because nobody forgets these things in small towns. Or anywhere, really.
Some of the issues in this book just deal with how unfair society is: How we are all programmed to believe in certain things, and we can't break this programming; how people are never really forgiven; the ways we label people; and what we'll do merely to do something.
In the town the character, Deanna, lives in, there really isn't anything to do. And so she does what teenagers are supposed to do in small towns when they have nothing better to do-get drunk, high, have sex and be stupid.And she gets a reputation for being a slut that no matter what, she can't rub off. I am so happy to live in New York where there are actual things to do with my time.
Another issue in the class system in our country. Deanna has it tough because she lives in the less wealthy section of her town. And just because she doesn't have a family with income, it basically prevents her from leading a healthy life. Her parents are never home, she does no extracurriculars, her brother Darren and his girlfriend live in her parent's basement. Their the typical "white trash" family-- teenaged boy knocks up girlfriend, and they have no means of their own income because they're busy caring for the baby.
Deanna herself has no aspirations, she accepts the hardships of her life and she doesn't even try to run away from them. She works in a Pizzeria, hoping to get enough money so she can rent an apartment with her brother when she turns 18. She doesn't even want to go to college. It's truly upsetting that just being born from a family with low income assures you a bad life. It really is sad.
A True Story About Someone Who Changes The World Every Day
The Dalai Lama is someone who changes the world every day. In fact, it's hard to come up with a story on him just because it seems like every other day he is enlightening new people.
This isn't biased, I'm not talking about his buddhism speeches. I'm not writing this because I'm a strong buddhist, in fact I have no religion. But the Dalai Lama teaches about peace, and how we can work to make our world peaceful.
The Dalai Lama won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, at the age of 59, and even now as he gets older he continues to fly around delivering his messages of peace to everyone. After 9/11, he delivered a speech that many people took into mind. He doesn't just fund causes to earn the name of a good person. He really cares. His speech on 9/11 was so moving that it made many people cry. In it, he talked of how events of this kind of hatred "make it clear that if we allow our human intelligence to be guided and controlled by negative emotions like hatred, the consequences are disastrous." He analyzes our souls in ways that make it clear how truly brilliant he is. (Okay, this is starting to sound really stupid.)
Also in his 9/11 speech, he gives americans guidelines for how to respond to an attack like this. He doesn't just hate the people who committed the crime, he digs deeper into why the did what he did. For more on his 9/11 speech: http://www.dalailama.com/messages/world-peace/9-11
That speech is just one of the many he has delivered.
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