Grappling with the Worst Fear: Child
Abduction
Kitsap County, Washington
is still reeling from revelations that one of their 17-year olds on the local
high school wrestling team has just been charged with the abduction and murder
of his 6-year old neighbor. Similar stories have appeared in the last month in New York (two sisters), New Hampshire (a teen returning abducted while walking home), and Philadelphia (a student abducted at her elementary school)--but all these children returned alive.
Child abduction
ranks at the top of parents’ concerns for their children,[i]
and it’s one of the most common questions I get. So, just how common is it?
Estimates[ii]—albeit
rough estimates because the numbers are so low—are that one in six hundred
thousand children is abducted by a stranger annually. Children are one thousand
times more likely to be abducted by their own mom, dad, or close relative,
often for reasons far from that child’s well-being, including bitterness during
a custody battle.[iii]
Despite the
comparisons, some might say, “Less than one in a million? That is more than I
thought! After all, it is much more likely than winning the lottery, which is
easily one in a few million!”[iv]
And stereotypical abduction is also still fifteen times more likely than a
child’s death from being hit by lightning. Here’s what little can be pieced
together.
Research, again
based on very small numbers, suggests that stereotypical abductions are most
likely to happen:
1. About the
age you start thinking you’ve made it past this worry (average age is about
11).
2. By someone
younger than you might think (almost 60 percent of abductors are under
twenty-nine and many are in their late teens).
3. Right near
your house (within three blocks, but includes the front yard).
Victims
The typical victim of abduction and murder
is a white (75 percent) girl (74 percent) about twelve years old (average age
was between eleven and twelve) from a middle-class (35 percent) or blue-collar
(36 percent) family living in a single-family residence (71 percent) with a
good family situation (50 percent) and considered a low-risk (84 percent),
average kid.[v]
Don’t think of
kidnappings as about kids under ten; twelve- to fourteen-year-olds show the
highest rates of stereotypical abduction and two times the rate one would
expect based on their numbers in the population (see graph). Boys are not
immune to stereotypical abduction. While girls are still disproportionately
represented, almost one-third (31 percent) of the kidnapping victims were boys.
For many kidnappers, this is a crime of opportunity not necessarily dependent
on child gender. Whites and blacks were
also disproportionately represented. Eighty percent of the victims were white
(though only 65 percent of the population) and 20 percent were black (15
percent of the population).
For those who
are concerned about infant abduction, there are disproportionately low rates
and estimates are that fewer than twenty occur annually. One study[vi]
that looked at infant abduction over ten years (1983–1992) found that the
abductors were usually women, disproportionately black (43 percent), and
abducted male and female infants at about the same rate. Three-quarters of the
infants were recovered within five days.
Perpetrators
The
perpetrators were likely to be men (estimates ranged from 86 to 99 percent),
but about half of the time they had
partners in their crime. Let me repeat that: almost half (48 percent) of the
children abducted were abducted by more than one person. Further, more than 20
percent of perpetrators were teenagers (between thirteen and nineteen years
old). The research on child molesters suggests that most molest for the first
time during their teenage years.[vii]
Fifty-seven percent of perpetrators were less than thirty years old. A study of
over eight hundred child abduction–murders found that the oldest murderer was
sixty-one and the youngest was nine. The median age of those who killed was
about twenty-eight.[viii]
The image of the older, lone man does not hold up to statistics. Almost
two-thirds had prior arrests for violent crimes, with slightly more than half
of those prior crimes committed already against children. One in ten murderers had already killed or attempted to kill another
child.[ix] To
search for registered sex offenders near you, you can search by zip code at the
Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website, http://www.nsopw.gov/Core/Portal.aspx.[x]
You will likely get more information by going to your state’s page (search “sex
offender registry”). Map out both the offender’s home and work addresses, and
the likely route in between. When I typed one of our local offender’s work
addresses into Google Maps, I found out that the unassuming address where he
was listed as working was actually a popular gym near our home—a gym with child
care services.
Note the consistent
early onset: most molesters begin molesting before the age of twenty, the
molestation likely begins within the family, and the early victims frequently
do not report. This suggests that it is a big mistake to excuse an older
sibling’s molesting a younger one as “experimenting,” especially since early
treatment of pedophilia may make all the difference.[xi]
The Scene
Where is the
abduction occurring? About one in every six stereotypical abductions (16
percent) happens in the child’s own home or yard. Given that the age of victims
is often eleven or twelve, the idea that their own front yard is not safe may
be quite disturbing. Two out of five (40 percent) are in streets or cars.
Unlike
murderers in general, child abduction murderers were “much less likely to
select certain types of victims based on personal characteristics” (e.g., blond
hair). Only 10 percent selected victims for those reasons. Forty percent of
murderers selected their victim purely because the opportunity presented
itself. In another 14 percent they had an existing relationship that let them
create an opportunity. [xii]
The National
council on Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) analyzed more than 4,200 attempted abductions for the five-year
period from February 2005 and March 2010 and found that the five most
common lures, often from a car, included offering a child a ride, offering the
child candy or sweets, showing the child an animal or asking for help finding a
lost animal, offering the child money, and asking the child for directions.
What to Do
A critical
finding of a NCMEC study was that “children were their own best protectors.” Simply
being with another friend is not enough.[xiii]
Among nearly 3,500 cases of attempted abduction, 31 percent
of children yelled, kicked, or pulled away and 53 percent walked or ran away. “The child should do whatever is
necessary to stay out of the car, because once the child is in that car, it
dramatically reduces the chances of escape,” NCMEC Director Ernie Allen said.
Only 16 percent received help from an adult.
NCMEC emphasizes that parents also “need to understand that
most of those who abduct children are not ‘strangers.’” Teaching “stranger
danger” may not be an effective strategy. If children know the person at all,
which is true in the majority of cases, they won’t consider the person a
stranger.
Abbreviated
List of Back-to-School Safety Tips
from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children www.missingkids.com.
- Teach your children that if anyone bothers
them or makes them feel scared or uncomfortable, they should trust their
feelings and immediately get away from that person. Teach them it is OK
not to be polite and IT IS OK TO SAY NO.
- Teach your children that if anyone tries to
take them somewhere, they should RESIST by kicking and screaming,
try to run away, and DRAW ATTENTION by kicking and screaming, “This
person is trying to take me away” or “This person is not my
father/mother.”
- Teach your children NOT TO ACCEPT A RIDE
from anyone unless you have said it is OK in that instance. If anyone
follows them in a vehicle, they should turn around, go in the other
direction, and run to a trusted adult for help.
- Teach your children that grownups should NOT
ASK CHILDREN FOR DIRECTIONS or
for any other assistance--other than to go to get an adult.
- Teach your children to NEVER ACCEPT MONEY
OR GIFTS from anyone unless you have told them it is OK in each
instance.
- Teach your children to always CHECK FIRST
before changing their plans before or after school. Teach your children to
never leave school with anyone unless they CHECK FIRST with you or
another trusted adult, even if someone tells them it is an emergency.
If your child
goes missing, call the police. Police want (or should want) you to call them
even if you are unsure whether your child is actually missing. Why? Because if
bad things are going to happen, they happen fast. Estimates of deceased victims
show that half were murdered in the first hour (47 percent), three-quarters
within the first two hours (76 percent), and almost nine out of ten (89
percent) in the first twenty-four hours.[xiv]
The sooner the parents call, the better. Remember though that more than half (57 percent) of children are
returned alive[xv]
and 90 percent of the episodes are over within twenty-four hours.
Take-away:
Drop talks of “stranger-danger” and teach your the basic steps for when to run
away and how to fight back if approached.
[i] Ernest Allen, “Keeping Children Safe: Rhetoric and Reality,” Juvenile Justice Journal V, no. 1 (May
1998).
[iii] Ernest Allen, “The Kid Is with a Parent, How Bad Can It Be?,” The
Crisis of Family Abductions
(1998).
[v] Brown,
Keppel, Weis, and Skeen, 2006.
[viii] Brown,
Keppel, Weis, and Skeen, 2006.
[x] Having
said that, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that studies[x]
have not found a significant difference in prevention of new offenses resulting
from the registries. It is unclear why no effect was found (e.g., did people
not use the registries). Overall, rates of abduction in the places studied went
down, so the changes may be masked or there may be an overall discouragement
because of the registries.
[xii] Brown,
Keppel, Weis, and Skeen, 2006, p. 30
[xiii] Gallagher, Bradford, and Pease, “Attempted
and Completed Incidents of Stranger-Perpetrated Child Sexual Abuse and
Abduction,” Centre
for Applied Childhood Studies, Harold Wilson Building, University of
Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH, United Kingdom, 32, no. 5:
517–28 (May 2008), e-pub May 29, 2008.
[xiv] Brown,
Keppel, Weis, and Skeen, 2006.
ATVs are one of the deadliest forms of transportation for our children. ATVs are responsible for 40% more child deaths than bicycles. For children ages ten to fourteen, ATVs are responsible for three-times the numbers of deaths as motorcycles.[ii] Boating, skateboarding, and other activities don’t even come close.
