Child Abductions Scenarios and Perpetrators

Child abduction is every parents' worst nightmare, and a simple dose of fear can be an excellent motivator for parents to take the proper precautions with their children. However, fear, combined with the myth and lore surrounding abductions within our culture and media, can negatively influence our imagination and lead us to make poor decisions and bad judgments when protecting our children. Parents need to arm themselves with as much information about child abduction and most importantly the profile of a child abductor. Let's look at some facts and statistics about who these criminals are and the circumstances in which they perpetrated these horrible acts.

Current data on the subject of child abduction is hard to find but there were several comprehensive studies published in the early 2000's, such as the NISMART (National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Throwaway Children

Two Basic Episode Types of Child Abduction

1. Family Abduction
2. Non-family Abduction

Family Abduction - The Most Common and Least Considered

A family abduction occurs when, in violation of a custody order, a decree, or other legitimate custodial rights, a member of the child's family, or someone acting on behalf of a family member, takes or fails to return a child, and the child is concealed or transported out of State with the intent to prevent contact or deprive the caretaker of custodial rights indefinitely or permanently. (For a child 15 or older, unless mentally incompetent, there must be evidence that the perpetrator used physical force or threat of bodily harm to take or detain the child.)

Key Findings

• An estimated 203,900 children were victims of a family abduction in 1999. Among these, 117,200 were missing from their caretakers, and, of these, an estimated 56,500 were reported to authorities for assistance in locating the children.
• Forty-three percent of the children who were victims of family abduction were not considered missing by their caretakers because the caretakers knew the child's whereabouts or were not alarmed by the circumstances.
• Forty-four percent of family abducted children were younger than age 6.
• Fifty-three percent of family abducted children were abducted by their biological father, and 25 percent were abducted by their biological mother.
• Forty-six percent of family abducted children were gone less than 1 week, and 21 percent were gone 1 month or more.
• Only 6 percent of children abducted by a family member had not yet returned at the time of the survey interview.

Non-family Abductions - The Least Common and Most Feared

A non-family abduction occurs when a non-family perpetrator takes a child by the use of physical force or threat of bodily harm or detains a child for at least 1 hour in an isolated place by the use of physical force or threat of bodily harm without lawful authority or parental permission; or when a child who is younger than 15 years old or is mentally incompetent, without lawful authority or parental permission, is taken or detained by or voluntarily accompanies a non-family perpetrator who conceals the child's whereabouts, demands ransom, or expresses the intention to keep the child permanently.

It is no secret that we fear the latter most. Most of us imagine a kidnapping being perpetrated by a greasy man in a dark ally, but the truth is family is the most likely to kidnap a child. This fact means we as parents need to be responsible and attentive to the whereabouts and activities of our children, and also keep important information an arms length away.