Eleven years ago Scott Berne, a parental abduction survivor, shared with the world the journey of his childhood experiences in the release of his book Extraordinary Circumstances. The book has been sold worldwide and describes his survival journey after he and his brother were abducted by their mentally ill mother after she lost custody of them.
In 1978 Scott, at the age of eight, and his younger brother were abducted by their mother on her first visitation after she lost custody of them. Although it was a local case, it received national notoriety as it unfolded because at that time it was rare for a mother to lose custody, and there were no laws to protect the legal custodial parents or to protect the children from parental abduction.
During the course of their two year abduction, Scott and his brother were taken to five countries and had 13 different residences. The boys were recovered thanks to their father’s (Dale Berne) relentless efforts in searching for them and his use of national media.
The August 1981 edition of Ladies Home Journal magazine printed an ad showing a picture of the missing boys. The babysitter for the boys at that time in Houston, Texas, saw the ad and went to the police. After a dramatic capture, the case became a national legal battle because there was no proper legal protocol for caring for recovered kidnapped children, especially when the kidnapper was one of the parents. Prompted by this case, the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act was signed by President Jimmy Carter. This act helped the process of getting Scott and his brother back to their home in Rochester and to their dad. Even after their mother was found guilty of abducting the boys, she was never required to serve any time in prison due to inadequate laws. The chaos, threats and attempts to re-kidnap the boys continued throughout much of their adolescence. In 2004 their mother committed suicide.
Today, Scott is not only a survivor but an author and children’s rights advocate who has used his experiences to help other children. He has shared his experiences with many audiences on national television, including The Oprah Winfrey Show. Scott is an active board member and spokesperson for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He not only speaks about his own personal experiences, but he also diligently works at education, prevention and legislation to help protect children. He has lobbied from Albany to Capitol Hill to help change the criminal laws of parental abduction from a misdemeanor to a felony.
Scott purposed his journey of survival to a life mission of awareness and education to protect children and families especially in the Rochester area. “My passion is to make a difference, Awareness + Education = Prevention,” he said.
The National Center of Missing and Exploited Children is a private nonprofit corporation whose mission is to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation and prevent child victimization. NCMEC works with families, victims, schools, law enforcement and the public to assist with child abduction cases, recover missing children, and providing services to deter and combat child sexual exploitations.
There are regional offices in four states across the country and Rochester is home to one of them. One of the largest offices for NCMEC is located at 275 Lake Avenue, Rochester. According to Edward Suk, the New York State Executive Director for Missing & Exploited Children, there are approximately 450,000 missing children reported annually in the United States, 19,000 in New York State and 1,700 missing kids from Monroe County. Many of the children that make up this statistic are runaways, and they are highly vulnerable to becoming victims of child sex crimes while they are on the run. According to Suk, one out of seven of these missing kids become victims of sex trafficking.
The NCMEC Rochester office houses many services to help reduce the victimization of children. This includes eight case managers who work closely with law enforcement to assist in finding missing children, a department with five analysts who investigate child exploitation including child pornography, online victimization, and trafficking, and a Community Education Department that provides educational programs for children in grades K-12 through various outlets such as schools, educators, clubs, churches, parents and law enforcement.
For more information about NCMEC services visit www.missingkids.org. For children’s internet safety resources for parents, educators and law enforcement visit www.netsmart.org or www.kidsmart.org for an abduction prevention program for families. For more information on Scott Berne’s journey visit www.scottberne.com.
Editor’s note: Check future editions of Suburban News and Hamlin-Clarkson Herald for a new monthly column on how to keep your family safe from being victimized. The series will include helpful tips provided by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
