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Keeping Children Safe is Good Business: The Enterprise of Child Safety in the Age of Reagan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2015

PAUL MOKRZYCKI RENFRO
PAUL MOKRZYCKI RENFRO*
Affiliation:
Paul Mokrzycki Renfro is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at University of Iowa. Contact information: University of Iowa, Department of History, 280 Schaeffer Hall, Iowa City, Iowa, USA, 52242. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

This essay investigates the ways in which child safety became an enterprise during the child protection crusade of the 1980s. Americans clamored for an increased federal presence in “the battle for child safety,” but they made such calls in a climate of intense governmental distrust. The federal government did assume a larger role on the issue of missing and exploited children with the passage of the Missing Children and Missing Children’s Assistance Acts of 1982 and 1984, respectively. But, as this essay demonstrates, the state also stressed the primacy of the private sector—and specifically for-profit companies—in protecting American children. The celebration by President Ronald Reagan and others of private sector efforts to raise awareness about and “save” American youngsters laid the groundwork for a broader child safety apparatus that took hold in the final decades of the twentieth century.

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 151 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2015. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved. 

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References

Bibliography of Works Cited

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Gray, Benjamin. “Deviance and Discourse: Child Molesters in the United States.” Ph.D. diss., University of Kansas, 2011.Google Scholar
Shelton, Kyle Krumdiek. “Power Moves: Houston, Texas, and the Politics of Mobility, 1950–1985.” Ph.D. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2014.Google Scholar
“After one week, no kidnap dues.” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 29, 1989, 16.Google Scholar
“Balloons carry hope for abducted boy.” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 30, 1989, 8.Google Scholar
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Beck, Joan. “Insurance for Missing Children?” Chicago Tribune, Mar. 7, 1984, 14.Google Scholar
Blau, Eleanor. “Follow-Up on the News; Pictures of Children,” New York Times, Oct. 5, 1986.Google Scholar
Caesar, Ed. “Too Hot to Handle.” New York Times Magazine, Nov. 17, 2013.Google Scholar
Child Protection Task Force advertisement. Moral Majority Report, Apr. 1985, 3.Google Scholar
Cohen, Patricia. “Interpreting Some Overlooked Stories from the South.” New York Times, May 1, 2007.Google Scholar
Dunn, Marcia. “Babbitt Blames ‘Spontaneity’ for Inappropriate Joke.” Associated Press news release, Jan. 17, 1988.Google Scholar
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“Protecting Kids: A matter of growing concern.” Time, Nov. 18, 1985.Google Scholar
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Santiago, Frank, and Alex, Tom. “Reagan calls to offer aid on missing boys.” Des Moines Register, Aug. 17, 1984, 1A.Google Scholar
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U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on the Judiciary. Hearing on Private Sector Responses to the Missing Children Problem before the Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice. Ninety-ninth Congress, first session, May 22, 1985.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Labor and Human Resources. Missing Children: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Investigations and General Oversight. Ninety-seventh Congress, first session, Oct. 6, 1981.Google Scholar
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Eminem. “The Real Slim Shady” music video. Dirs. Philip G. Atwell and Dr. Dre. Santa Monica, Calif.: Aftermath/Interscope, 2000.Google Scholar
The Lost Boys . Dir. Joel Schumacher. Hollywood, Calif.: Warner Bros. Pictures, 1987.Google Scholar
The Lovely Bones . Dir. Peter Jackson. Hollywood, Calif.: Paramount Pictures, 2009.Google Scholar
Briggs, Laura. Somebody’s Children: The Politics of Transnational and Transracial Adoption. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Casavantes Bradford, Anita. The Revolution is for the Children: The Politics of Childhood in Havana and Miami, 1959–1962. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Cooney, Caroline B. The Face on the Milk Carton. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1990.Google Scholar
Crespino, Joseph. In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dettlinger, Chet, with Prugh, Jeff. The List. Atlanta: Strode Communications, 1984.Google Scholar
Duggan, Lisa. The Twilight of Equality? Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy. Boston: Beacon Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Flippen, J. Brooks. Jimmy Carter, the Politics of Family, and the Rise of the Religious Right. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Freedman, Eric. Transient Images: Personal Media in Public Frameworks. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Hartman, Andrew. A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Hood, John. The Heroic Enterprise: Business and the Common Good. Hopkins, Minn.: Beard Books, 2005.Google Scholar
Klein, Jennifer. For All These Rights: Business, Labor, and the Shaping of America’s Public–Private Welfare State. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University, 2003.Google Scholar
Kruse, Kevin M. One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America. New York: Basic Books, 2015.Google Scholar
Kruse, Kevin M. White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lassiter, Matthew D. The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Lassiter, Matthew D., and Crespino, Joseph, eds. The Myth of Southern Exceptionalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGirr, Lisa. Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Moreton, Bethany. To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Needham, Andrew. Power Lines: Phoenix and the Making of the Modern Southwest. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Nickerson, Michelle M. Mothers of Conservatism: Women and the Postwar Right. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Nickerson, Michelle M., and Dochuk, Darren, eds. Sunbelt Rising: The Politics of Space, Place, and Region. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orleck, Annelise, and Hazirjian, Lisa Gayle, eds. The War on Poverty: A New Grassroots History, 1964–1980. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Peacock, Margaret. Innocent Weapons: The Soviet and American Politics of Childhood in the Cold War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Phillips-Fein, Kim. Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2009.Google Scholar
Quadagno, Jill. The Color of Welfare: How Racism Undermined the War on Poverty. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones. New York: Little, Brown, and Co., 2002.Google Scholar
Self, Robert O. All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy since the 1960s. New York: Hill and Wang, 2012.Google Scholar
Shermer, , Tandy, Elizabeth. Sunbelt Capitalism: Phoenix and the Transformation of American Politics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Strub, Whitney. Perversion for Profit: The Politics of Pornography and the Rise of the New Right. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Turner, Jeffrey S. American Families in Crisis: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2009.Google Scholar
Waterhouse, Benjamin C. Lobbying America: The Politics of Business from Nixon to NAFTA. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Williams, Daniel K. God’s Own Party: The Making of the Religious Right. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaretsky, Natasha. No Direction Home: The American Family and the Fear of National Decline, 1968–1980. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Adams, David S. “Ronald Reagan’s ‘Revival’: Voluntarism as a Theme in Reagan’s Civil Religion.” Sociological Analysis 48, no. 1 (Spring 1987): 17–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elliott, Susan Newhart, and Pendleton, Dianna L.. “S. 321: The Missing Children Act—Legislation by Hysteria.” University of Dayton Law Review 11, no. 3 (Summer 1986): 671–708.Google Scholar
Frank, Gillian. “‘The Civil Rights of Parents’: Race and Conservative Politics in Anita Bryant’s Campaign against Gay Rights in 1970s Florida.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 22, no. 1 (Jan. 2013): 126–60.Google Scholar
Gordon, Colin H. “New Deal, Old Deck: Business and the Origins of Social Security, 1920–1935.” Politics & Society 19, no. 2 (June 1991): 165–207.Google Scholar
Grem, Darren E. "The Marketplace Missions of S. Truett Cathy and Chick-fil-A." In Sunbelt Rising: The Politics of Space, Place, and Region, edited by Dochuk, Darren and Nickerson, Michelle, 293–315. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ivy, Marilyn. “Have You Seen Me? Recovering the Inner Child in Late Twentieth-Century America.” Social Text, no. 37 (Winter 1993): 227–52.Google Scholar
Jacoby, Sanford M. “Employers and the Welfare State: The Role of Marion B. Folsom.” Journal of American History 80, no. 2 (Sept. 1993): 525–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, Jennifer. “The Politics of Economic Security: Employee Benefits and the Privatization of New Deal Liberalism.” Journal of Policy History 16, no. 1 (Jan. 2004): 34–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Light, Paul C. “The Volunteering Decision: What Prompts It? What Sustains It?” Brookings Institution online, fall 2002, www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2002/09/fall-civilsociety-light.Google Scholar
Mokrzycki, Paul. “Lost in the Heartland: Childhood, Region, and Iowa’s Missing Paperboys.” Annals of Iowa 74, no. 1 (Winter 2015): 29–70.Google Scholar
Sealander, Judith. “The History of Childhood Policy: A Philippic’s Wish List.” Journal of Policy History 16, no. 2 (Apr. 2004): 175–87.Google Scholar
Sedman, David. “The Legacy of Broadcast Stereo Sound: The Short Life of MTS, 1984–2009.” Journal of Sonic Studies 3, no. 1 (Oct. 2012), journal.sonicstudies.org/vol03/nr01/a03.Google Scholar
Staller, Karen. “Social Problem Construction and Its Impact on Program and Policy Responses.” In From Child Welfare to Child Well-Being: An International Perspective on Knowledge in the Service of Policy Making, edited by Kamerman, Sheila, Phipps, Shelley, and Ben-Arieh, Asher, 155–74. New York: Springer, 2009.Google Scholar
Etheridge, Bryant L. “Making a Workforce, Unmaking a Working Class: The Creation of a Human Capital Society in Houston, 1900–80.” Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 2014.Google Scholar
Frank, Gillian. “Save Our Children: The Sexual Politics of Child Protection in the United States, 1965–1990.” Ph.D. diss., Brown University, 2009.Google Scholar
Gray, Benjamin. “Deviance and Discourse: Child Molesters in the United States.” Ph.D. diss., University of Kansas, 2011.Google Scholar
Shelton, Kyle Krumdiek. “Power Moves: Houston, Texas, and the Politics of Mobility, 1950–1985.” Ph.D. diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2014.Google Scholar
“After one week, no kidnap dues.” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 29, 1989, 16.Google Scholar
“Balloons carry hope for abducted boy.” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 30, 1989, 8.Google Scholar
Bayles, Fred. “Images of Missing Children on Pizza Boxes, Toll Tickets.” Associated Press news release, Mar. 3, 1985.Google Scholar
Beck, Joan. “Insurance for Missing Children?” Chicago Tribune, Mar. 7, 1984, 14.Google Scholar
Blau, Eleanor. “Follow-Up on the News; Pictures of Children,” New York Times, Oct. 5, 1986.Google Scholar
Caesar, Ed. “Too Hot to Handle.” New York Times Magazine, Nov. 17, 2013.Google Scholar
Child Protection Task Force advertisement. Moral Majority Report, Apr. 1985, 3.Google Scholar
Cohen, Patricia. “Interpreting Some Overlooked Stories from the South.” New York Times, May 1, 2007.Google Scholar
Dunn, Marcia. “Babbitt Blames ‘Spontaneity’ for Inappropriate Joke.” Associated Press news release, Jan. 17, 1988.Google Scholar
Gamboa, Suzanne. “4,000 Runaways Go Home Via Free Trailways Trip.” Schenectady Gazette (N.Y.), June 7, 1985, 3.Google Scholar
Gannon, James P. “Commentary: The Dark Threat of Terror Now Stalking D.M. [Des Moines] Should Make Us All ‘Mad as Hell.’” Des Moines Register, Aug. 15, 1984, 1A.Google Scholar
Gratteau, Hanke, and Gibson, Ray. “In missing-child business, fear sells.” Chicago Tribune, Sept. 1, 1985, 1.Google Scholar
Griego, Diana, and Kilzer, Louis. “Truth about Missing Kids: Exaggerated Statistics Stir National Paranoia.” Denver Post, May 12, 1985, 1A.Google Scholar
Johnson, Dirk. “Small Town is Shaken by a Child’s Abduction.” New York Times, Oct. 30, 1989, A10.Google Scholar
Kilian, Michael. “About Washington: New FBI TV series will seek viewer help in nabbing criminals.” Chicago Tribune, Feb. 5, 1988, 20.Google Scholar
Masters, Brooke A. “Fairfax Parents, Children Walk to School in Safety Exercise.” Washington Post, Aug. 25, 1989, B5.Google Scholar
McIlwain, Lori. “The Day My Son Went Missing.” New York Times, Nov. 13, 2013.Google Scholar
Mooneyham, Lamarr. “Missing child outrage prompts MM to form Child Protection Task Force.” Moral Majority Report, Apr. 1985, 1.Google Scholar
“Protecting Kids: A matter of growing concern.” Time, Nov. 18, 1985.Google Scholar
Rowe, Billy. “Urge national Black ribbon tie-on to mourn kids.” New York Amsterdam News, Feb. 28, 1981, 25.Google Scholar
Santiago, Frank, and Alex, Tom. “Reagan calls to offer aid on missing boys.” Des Moines Register, Aug. 17, 1984, 1A.Google Scholar
Scardino, Albert. “Experts Question Data about Missing Children.” New York Times, Aug. 18, 1985, 22.Google Scholar
Tavris, Carol. “Child Abuse: Real Dangers and False Alarms.” New York Times, Nov. 10, 1985, BR48.Google Scholar
United Press International. “Roll Call of Missing Children: Reagan Appeals for Viewers’ Help in Search.” Washington Post, Apr. 30, 1985, PC-3.Google Scholar
“Where Are the Children?” Wall Street Journal, eastern edition, May 7, 1986, 1.Google Scholar
American Presidency Project, University of California-Santa Barbara, www.presidency.ucsb.edu.Google Scholar
Goldbug company website, www.goldbuginc.com/About_Us.Google Scholar
“Missing Children: Reuniting Missing Children with their Families—Our Passion.” Valassis Communications, Inc. website, www.valassis.com/about-us/community/missing-kids.aspx.Google Scholar
Mommy’s Helper company website, www.mommyshelperinc.com/kidkeeper.htm.Google Scholar
Carl Albert Center Congressional Archives, University of Oklahoma, Norman.Google Scholar
Lee, P. Brown Papers, Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston.Google Scholar
Crime Control Act of 1990, Pub. L. 101–647. Title XXXVII: National Child Search Assistance Act of 1990, 42 USC 5779–80, 104 STAT. 4966–67, Nov. 29, 1990.Google Scholar
Maynard Jackson Papers, Archives Research Center, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center, Atlanta.Google Scholar
KCCI–TV, Des Moines.Google Scholar
National Archives and Record Administration I, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
National Archives and Record Administration II, College Park, Md.Google Scholar
Public Papers of Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, California.Google Scholar
Sedlak, Andrea J., Finkelhor, David, Hammer, Heather, and Schultz, Dana J.. “National Estimates of Missing Children: An Overview.” U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children, Oct. 2002.Google Scholar
Southern Christian Leadership Conference records, Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University, Atlanta.Google Scholar
State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines.Google Scholar
U.S. Attorney General’s Advisory Board on Missing Children. Missing & Exploited Children: The Challenge Continues. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, 1988.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress, House, Committee on the Judiciary. Missing Children’s Act: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights. Ninety-seventh Congress, first session, Nov. 18 and 30, 1981.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on the Judiciary. Exploitation of Children: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice. Ninety-seventh Congress, first session, Nov. 5, 1981.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on the Judiciary. Hearing on Private Sector Responses to the Missing Children Problem before the Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice. Ninety-ninth Congress, first session, May 22, 1985.Google Scholar
U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Labor and Human Resources. Missing Children: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Investigations and General Oversight. Ninety-seventh Congress, first session, Oct. 6, 1981.Google Scholar
Vanderbilt Television News Archive, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.Google Scholar
Eminem. “The Real Slim Shady” music video. Dirs. Philip G. Atwell and Dr. Dre. Santa Monica, Calif.: Aftermath/Interscope, 2000.Google Scholar
The Lost Boys . Dir. Joel Schumacher. Hollywood, Calif.: Warner Bros. Pictures, 1987.Google Scholar
The Lovely Bones . Dir. Peter Jackson. Hollywood, Calif.: Paramount Pictures, 2009.Google Scholar