Sommers analyzed four major news outlets - CNN, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Chicago Tribune and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - and found missing Black individuals are "significantly underrepresented." He saw many people discussing similar anecdotes online, but could not find any data to confirm his suspicions. "I remember thinking to myself, she looks a lot like all of the other missing persons that I've seen that have kind of captured the national imagination," he told CBS News. Zach Sommers, a crime scholar and litigation associate in Chicago, noticed the pattern when he saw a news report about a missing woman who was young, White and blonde. This phenomenon has become known as "Missing White Woman Syndrome." involve White women - such as Kristin Smart, Natalee Holloway, Lauren Spierer, Anne Marie Fahey, and Tara Calico. Many of the most thoroughly documented cases in the U.S. population compared to missing individuals, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. From January 1 to September 27, the number of Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander women missing were a greater proportion of cases than their respective demographics nationwide. The discrepancy is even greater among missing women and girls. This translates across other racial demographics as well - only excluding those who are White and Asian. population, but represent 4.6% of those reported cases. Her own son was murdered just months after Keeshae disappeared.įrom January 1 to September 27 of this year, 1,529 people were added to the Department of Justice's National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, a database vetted by law enforcement.Īmerican Indian or Alaska Native people are slightly more than 1% of the U.S. "Keeshae and are about the same age, her parents are just as concerned about her as I was about Keeshae," Toni Jacobs told CBS News, saying she understands the heartbreak of having a missing child, as well as having one who has been found dead. Keeshae Jacobs was last seen 5 years ago when she went to a friend's house in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother says she hasn't heard from her since. She texted her mother, Toni Jacobs, that she made it safely and would see her the following day. Jacobs, who was 21 when she disappeared, had gone to a male friend's house on Septemin Richmond, Virginia. Women of color rarely get as quick a response.įew news outlets had covered the case of Keeshae Jacobs, a Black woman who has been missing for 5 years, prior to Petito's disappearance. Within days, local and national outlets reported her story. Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old "Van Life" vlogger, was reported missing on September 11.
0 kommentar(er)
