The Sunday papers this week are full of so-called analyses of the child kidnappers who are plaguing the city over the last few weeks and months. The thing about these profiles is that they're based on incomplete information.
With all due respect to our police department, we're not even sure whether the information they have about the kidnappings is complete. Despite the fact that they've assembled enough of a trail to know that the Mayor's daughter isn't the first child to go missing, and that there are common factors, there's no guarantee they've connected all the cases they have--clues may have been hidden or simply overlooked and some disappearances may not have been connected to the case. And with the unfortunate number of street children that live in New York, the disappearance of some victims may never have been noticed.
On top of that, it's not as if NYPD is sharing everything they know with the public, for very good reasons, so it's not as if any so-called profilers have all the information they'd need to assemble a profile. The experts who work for NYPD and the other authorities they may have called in on the case are keeping quiet for a reason.
It wouldn't occur to me to speculate in more than passing on why someone might have kidnapped these children. There are ideas that seem terribly obvious, but without knowing much more than we do, the only likely outcomes are titillating the public and causing distress to the families. Rumor has it that the APA may promulgate an ethics rule forbidding professionals to speculate on television or in print about ongoing cases they're not involved in. I'd be glad to support that measure.
I hope all of the children are home with their families, safe and well, soon.
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