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I was in my early 20s when Etan Patz first went missing. Children – anyone's – were the last thing on my mind. His disappearance kind of went in one ear and out the other. I didn't even know how to pronounce his name. I thought it was “Eaton.” I remember another editor at Good Housekeeping, where I was working at the time, mentioned his name and agonized over how horrible it all was. I gave her a blank stare. Almost four decades later, everything has changed. I now have a child of my own and though he's a teenager, that doesn't stop me from worrying. No one in their right mind would call me a free-range parent. I was a helicopter from the word “go.” I would barely let our son go down the hall to his bedroom by himself when he was a toddler. Thinking now of what these parents have gone through – How did we let him walk to school by himself? What were we thinking? We're the worst parents in the history of children – I can feel their guilt...

I've wondered this for a very long time.  Can your genes make you kill? Scientists are actually mapping Adam Lanza's genes to find out, according to smartplanet.com.  Remember him?  He's hard to forget.  He's the mass murderer of 20 Connecticut first-graders and six of their teachers and administrators two years ago.   The Web site notes that no one has ever sequenced a mass murderer’s genes. "And the plan to do so, by University of Connecticut geneticists, is being conducted quietly and far from the media spotlight. The University won't comment on its research, other than to admit that they indeed undertook it. It's not clear whether they have concluded their research, but the scientists most likely looked for mutations linked to mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, autism or Asperger’s—a diagnosis psychiatrists had given Lanza years before his rampage. Neither the researchers nor the medical examiner’s office have said what they plan to do with t...

It may not have helped Adam Lanza to know this about himself, but a new study has shown that patients with schizophrenia cannot imitate or mimic others. So?  Believe it or not, that's how we learn social interaction. Lanza is the person who killed 20 first graders and six educators, along with his mother, in December 2012, in a small Connecticut town. According to psychologists, "Iimitation is something that we all do whenever we learn a new skill, whether it is dancing or how to behave in specific social situations," newswise.com reports. In the study,  when patients with schizophrenia were asked to imitate simple hand movements, "their brains exhibited abnormal brain activity in areas associated with the ability to imitate," the Web site notes. “The ability to imitate is present early in life and is crucial for learning how to navigate the social world,"  newswise quotes first author Katharine Thakkar, who conducted much of the research while ...

Two frightening new studies : the closer one is socially to a homicide victim, the higher your chances of being shot, too. I suppose that makes sense.  If the people you hang with and around have guns, it's far more likely you'll be the victim of violence than a little old lady sitting in church. "For every degree of separation from a victim, an individual would experience a 57 percent decrease in their odds of homicide victimization," newswise.com reports. "In addition 41 percent of all gun homicides occurred within less than 4 percent of the neighborhood’s population." “By mapping the terrain within high-risk social networks and analyzing shooting patterns, network analysis offers a more direct road map for interventions," newswise.com quotes the study authors. The researchers argue against "sweeping policies and practices based on categorical distinctions such as gang membership or race," and, instead, focus on intervention and prevent...

Who on earth would give a 5-year-old a rifle for his birthday?  All you gun zealots out there, do you still believe guns should be available to anyone? I couldn't believe this when I heard that this young boy had accidentally -- accidentally -- shot and killed his 2-year-old sister. Of course it was an accident but what moron gave this child a gun -- and put bullets in it? I'm tired of all my ranting and raving about gun control, and am totally brokenhearted that Obama didn't call in favors or do some strong-arming of Congress to get even the watered-down background check bill passed. How could he miss this opportunity?  One that probably won't come up again for another 20 years, based on our yellow-bellied senators. I also couldn't believe that any sane man or woman would put a donor's dollars ahead of a child's life.  But I guess I was naive.  Not just one did it, over 50 did.  What would they say now to this child's parents?  I heard the grandp...

A rather interesting article in The Advocate (Stamford, CT) caught my eye this week.  It was about Michael Skakel, who was convicted years ago of murdering a neighbor back when they were both teens, and an appeal he's successfully brought for a re-opening of the case. What intrigued me was that, as part of the rationale for once again prying open the case, his lawyers did it on the basis that he received poor lawyering the first time around (even though the lawyer was celebrity Mickey Sherman, of NBC and CNN fame).  This, of course, happens  But as part of the appeal, Skakel's new attorneys argued that Sherman didn't call the "right" witnesses to testify.  One of those witnesses was Thomas, Michael's older brother. The case garnered so much attention because the Skakels were nephews of Ethel Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy's widow.  (Another brother was accused of having sex with a minor, but he crashed into a tree skiing and died.) According to a st...

We've talked so much about the shooting victims in Newtown, those beautiful children shot dead in their classrooms, and the teachers, too. But not a lot is written about the witnesses to these tragedies, and how they, too, are changed for life. An article in  Sunday Review in The New York Times yesterday talked about how we ignore those who have been wounded, or have been there at the scene of carnage. At  little-noticed report , the story said, "suggested that children exposed to community violence might turn to violence themselves as 'a source of power, prestige, security, or even belongingness.'" It said these children -- who had seen friends gunned down on porches, or in parking lots, or were the victims of a random bullet like the 15-year-old, who only days before had sung at President Obama's inauguration, struck down by a stranger's anger at another -- needed help and professional counseling. Op-ed writer Alex Kotlowitz noted "a remarka...