While Carey quickly reached the top of many mu-
sic charts, she received criticism for not presenting
herself at many public appearances. As a result, in
1992 she performed live onMTV Unpluggedand re-
leased an album of the performance. Her whirlwind
career included a glamorous marriage to Mottola in
1993 and the release of her fourth album,Music Box.
The recording ofMerr y Christmas(1994) andDay-
dream(1995) soon followed. Carey announced her
pending divorce in 1997, the year she joined hip-
hop and rap singers to recordButterfly. Next she
joined pop star Whitney Houston to record the song
“When You Believe” for Disney’sThe Prince of Egypt
(1998). In 1999, it earned the Academy Award for
Best Original Song, and Columbia Records released
Carey’s thirteen hit singles in an album titled#1’s.
Carey’s work of the 1990’s culminated with the re-
lease of her ninth album,Rainbow(1999). This re-
cording included the song “Heartbreaker,” which
brought her music to the top of the charts for the
tenth consecutive year. In that year, she made her
film debut as an opera singer inThe Bachelorand re-
leased a video of her world performances,Around
the World.
Impact Mariah Carey was a top female singer and
composer of the 1990’s. She sang beautifully, wrote
or coauthored most of her own music, and helped
produce other artists’ work. She had several tours
and appeared in various television shows. Commer-
cial success allowed Carey to become a philanthro-
pist for her favorite charities, including the Make-
A-Wish Foundation and the National Adoption
Center. She also helped found Camp Mariah, a
Fresh Air Camp for inner-city children in New York.
Further Reading
Conti, Kathe A. “Mariah Carey.” InDictionar y of His-
panic Biography, edited by Joseph C. Tardiff and
L. Mpho Mabunda. New York: Gale Research,
1996.
Taylor, B. Kimberly, and Shannon McCarthy. “Mariah
Carey.” In Contemporar y Musicians, edited by
Angela M. Pilchak. Detroit: Thomson/Gale, 2006.
Cynthia J. W. Svoboda
See also Academy Awards;MTV Unplugged; Music;
Selena.
Carjacking
Definition Forcible theft of an occupied motor
vehicleThe number of carjackings grew from approximately
35,000 attempts per year between 1987 and 1992 to ap-
proximately 49,000 carjackings per year between 1992 and
1996.Carjacking differs from motor vehicle theft in that
the vehicle is taken in the presence of the victim and
the offender uses force or the threat of force. In the
early 1990’s, carjackings, which appear to be crimes
of opportunity, targeted older people, women, and
tourists. According to newspaper accounts, tourists
in Florida appeared to be the most frequent targets,
since they often carried large amounts of cash. As a
result, the state outlawed logos or other markings
that identified vehicles as rental cars. In the spring of
1992, Representative Charles Schumer of New York
introduced new legislation aimed at auto theft in
general rather than carjacking in particular. This bill
became the Anti-Car Theft Act of 1992.
Although in approximately 84 percent of carjack-
ings the victim is not injured, the sensational case of
Pamela Basu and her twenty-two-month-old daugh-
ter made national news. In the fall of 1992, Basu’s
car, with her daughter inside, was carjacked by two
men. Basu became tangled in her seat belt while try-
ing to rescue her daughter. As a result, she was
dragged almost two miles, suffering fatal injuries.
Her daughter was thrown uninjured from the car
shortly afterward. This incident became the rallying
point for the passage of a provision in the Anti-Car
Theft Act of 1992, which was signed into law on Oc-
tober 25, 1992, by President George H. W. Bush.
In a twelve-month period from 1997 to 1998,
eight infants aged two months to fourteen months
were kidnapped in carjackings. It appeared that
most of the offenders did not know the child was in
the vehicle and abandoned the vehicle and/or the
baby a short time after the child was discovered.Impact The passage of the Anti-Car Theft Act re-
sulted in a challenge under the double jeopardy
clause of the U.S. Constitution. According to federal
statutes, a person who used a firearm in the commis-
sion of a carjacking could also be punished for carry-
ing a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.
InUnited States v. Singleton(1994), the Fifth CircuitThe Nineties in America Carjacking 151