Child Abduction Statistics
About 260,000 children are abducted every year in the United States of America. Of these child abduction only about 115 result in very serious consequences, like injury or death.
The number of children reported missing in the U.S is about 800,000 every year. But this figure can be misleading, as it includes many trivial incidents like overstaying with a parent.
Break up of child abduction statistics
- 800,000 children are reported missing every year. That is about two children every day.
- Of the children reported missing, 350,000 are family abductions. That is, they are taken away by family members in violation of custody agreements.
- Non – family abductions amount to 204,000. These include kidnappers who are acquaintances or complete strangers to the victims.
- Only 115 of non-family abductions are stereotypical abductions, defined as those in which a child is detained overnight, transported atleast 50 miles, held for ransom or intended to be kept permanently or killed.
- The rest of the 800,000 missing cases include runaways, throwaways, or lost children.
Family child abductions
- In 16% of family abductions, the child experiences severe mental harm.
- 8% of the children experience physical harm.
- 7% of the children are sexually abused.
- Mothers take the child away 46% of the time.
- Fathers take the child away 54% of the time.
Non-Family child abductions
- More than 65% of the children abducted by non-family members are girls.
- 46% of children are sexually abused.
- 31% of the children are physically abused.
- 32% of abductions take place in a street or a car and 25% take place in a park or a wooded area.
- The top 3 places an abductor imprisons the child are – a car, the abductor’s home and the abductor’s building.
- Most abductions are carried out within a quarter of a mile of the child’s home.
- 75% of the abductors are male.
- 67% of them are below 29 years of age.
Stereotypical kidnappings
- 40% of children in stereotypical kidnappings are killed.
- 4% of children are never found.
- 79% kidnappings are carried out by strangers and 21% by acquaintances.
Nearly 75% of the parents in U.S fear that their children might become victims of abduction.
Jennifer said on October 20, 2009
What an informative article. I have a 7 year old daughter who I talk to all the time about safety and to not talk to strangers. Last summer we went to the county fair as we always do but this year we brought along her friend, the Child Guard Panda. This nifty device allows me to have a little more peace of mind for such a low investment. She wears the panda on her wrist and I keep the key chain. The key chain will sound an alarm to me to let me know if she has wondered off. This is a great way to be able to go to public events with my child and not have to worry. I bought this device at the below website:
If you enter in this promotional code under “comments” they will even throw in a free gift: 31758
Bill said on April 24, 2010
We went to the county fair last night I saw some people checking out my 3 year old. Later that night she went around the corner of an ATM machine while I was buying my son a toy and my wife was putting on a bandaid for my other daughter. It wasn’t 5 seconds and she was gone. I found a deputy right away and he called it in. I then ran three times around that fair in a frantic nightmare. The sherrifs dept. called me on my cell and said they had her. “Wew” what a releif. It turns out a lady said she found her and took her to the sherrif’s office. I still think it was an aborted abduction. I thought she was with my wife around the corner of the vendor and my wife though she was with me. I was wathching her like a hawk. Watch your kids!
Inscore said on October 13, 2010
Very Good
Paul said on October 26, 2010
Watch your Family & Friends, not the strangers. The statistics bear this out. 44% of the abductions (350k) were the child’s own Family! The Non-family only account for 25% (204k) — And those even include “Acquantances.” Only 115 were true kidnappings by a complete stranger. True, those 115 are absolutely horrible crimes. But as a parent, that’s not your child’s biggest risk. The clear and present danger to your child is from Family & Friends. Hard to believe, but those are the facts.
Mckillop said on October 29, 2010
Thanks man good work Nice
Nice …
Mcglinn said on November 6, 2010
Always interesting to follow a nice website. Thank you for the post. In addition, apart from the content , the design of your blog looks really beautiful . Cheers.
Anna Bogdanovich said on November 9, 2010
You write “800,000 children are reported missing every year. That is about two children every day.” Really? 800,000 divided by 365 days a year = 2,192 a day. I am seeking ACCURATE statistics. That statistic is grossly inaccurate. Therefore it is difficult to trust your other statistics.
paul said on June 9, 2012
thats what i said, whoever made these statistics is a stupid idiot….2 kids a day …stupid a**hole
Christy said on November 12, 2010
I’m calling BS on this one. Cite your sources. ‘Reported missing” and “abducted” are two different things entirely. Paranoid parents report their child missing only to have them come home two hours later from their friend’s house.
Still searching for accurate information.
Alan said on November 17, 2010
incorrect “800,000 children are reported missing every year. That is about two children every day.” false statement because there are 365 days in a year so if it was two each day then it would be 730 not 800,000
Breit said on December 5, 2010
1000 backlinks for your website
Diz said on December 10, 2010
Very well put together article, however if doesn’t quite seem to add up…. “•800,000 children are reported missing every year. That is about two children every day.” In actuality, 800,000 children going missing over 365 days in a year equals out to about 2,191.78 children missing daily. Of those 800,000 “•Non – family abductions amount to 204,000. These include kidnappers who are acquaintances or complete strangers to the victims.” ” Of these child abduction only about 115 result in very serious consequences, like injury or death.” I’m sorry, even if 204,000 is correct, you mean to tell me that only 115 of those children have a serious direct result of that? You ever accidentally hurt your kid while you were playing with them, and then notice they flince for a good bit after that?
The pain was unintentional, and short lasted, but the effect on the childs mental….lasts much longer. Image you were taken by a stranger against your will to an unfamiliar place by an unfamiliar person. I’d like to see some references of numbers. Where did you get these “facts”? Oh and who tought you to use a calculator?
Ana said on December 10, 2010
NEWS FLASH !!! All statistics are inaccurate. This site is just trying to be helpful and is close to all other websites I have found. Do you idiots care about kids or the F- ing statistics!
Holyoke said on December 11, 2010
Good point of view. I also think same as writer
Jefferds said on December 14, 2010
Such a great thought. He should receive credit for it. Thanks
Sixtos said on December 16, 2010
Helpful point of view. Keep it up.
Burdette said on December 21, 2010
Just wanted to say what a great job you have been doing…. Would you like to do a guest post on our site? it would be great to hear from you or your staff… Keep up the great work.
Eckelman said on December 21, 2010
Nice post
Gigliotti said on December 28, 2010
Nice point of view. Keep writing
Mount said on January 1, 2011
Awesome blog. Keep it up. Cheers
Farnum said on January 1, 2011
Nice post. Will visit again. Thanks
Heiserman said on January 9, 2011
Nice article!
Thanks
Remick said on January 14, 2011
Great article!
Keep it up
Erne said on January 31, 2011
Hey, I just wanted to say I really like this post, I think it’s really informative. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on this subject. Thanks for the post, have a great day.
Giuffrida said on February 8, 2011
good post, i will come back
Zwiefel said on February 18, 2011
Thanks for your post i agree with you
Gatza said on February 19, 2011
Great read. Hard to come across such quality information all in one place. Thanks for your effort here.
Vaneaton said on February 27, 2011
Thank you for giving information
Joe said on March 25, 2011
115 abductions year year that result in injury or death, are you going to let a 1 in 1.5 million chance keep your child in doors all the time and scared his/her whole childhood? The psychological effects of being scared of every person you do not not has got to very damaging to children. To put this in perspective there are more than 600 documented cases every year of Catholic priests sexually abusing children, the number is a little lower or higher for other denominations but it’s pretty steady. It stands to reason that MANY cases go unreported or the minister may get away with it. Your child is at least 5x more likely to be sexually abused by a minister than he/she is to be abducted and harmed. Let you kid be a kid, just tell them never to get into a car with a stranger.
Geib said on April 13, 2011
Hey, nice article !
James said on September 25, 2012
NO! What you are saying implies that there are 1.5 billion people in the U.S. There are only around 340 million!
Harbison said on April 22, 2011
Thanks so much for this, keep up the good work
Everyone loves what you guys are up too. This kind of clever work and exposure! Keep up the superb works guys I’ve you guys to blogroll.
? said on May 11, 2011
Just an FYI
Berlyn’s Journey on Fb site is a lie…child was never abducted or kidnapped. Courts in Colorado have deemed that the legal adoptive mother had every right to bring her child back to Norway..this is a very sick child and Norwegian health care is alot easier to maneuver around their system then America’s and the American X partner knows this…so their cries of foul play are a total lie…people need to do more research before falling for such a heinous blog on FB….these two women continue to harrass and slander the good name of a norwegian family and I would like to see it stopped once and for all!
Dana said on May 28, 2011
That is very interesting! Great Article!
Chris said on June 7, 2011
Many of these numbers are incorrect. 800,000 is one that is correct. The number of child abductions in the USA is greater than 2,000 PER DAY (not 2 per day). The number of international parental kidnappings is about 2 per day (maybe that is where this person became conduced). Close to half a million of these kids are not accounted for, and are never seen of or heard of again. The powers-that-be do not want people to know that around 1,300 children are being murdered, raped and then murdered, sold into sexual slavery, or trafficked out of the country for sexual slavery every day. That’s 27 from each state, every day of the year. It sounds impossible; that just shows you how big the USA really is. The truth would depress people too much.
Chris
Director: StolenChildren.net
Jacqueline Gargiulo said on June 21, 2011
Of the ~307MM US population, ~75MM are children. Of the 75MM, 260K are truly abducted and of the 260K, all of 115 meet with serious demise.
I am not one to wish demise on any child, in fact any person. I do have a concern that we in the US spend an incredible amount of time and effort to protect our children where just some awareness and a little diligence would suffice. There is so much beauty and love in the world, and we choose to focus on tragedy. Mourn the tragedy as we should. I just wish we wouldn’t get so hung up on what amounts to so little.
@ Bill: I reckon if situations like yours are tracked somewhere, I trust that most of them bear out to nice people doing good things for others much more often than the horrible nightmares we believe could happen.
Yes, watch your children, love your children, be AWARE of danger and focus for the beauty and love that is so much more abundant.
Schnitzler said on July 9, 2011
Hi! This is an interesting article!
JustMe said on September 10, 2011
Tonight I went to call my 9 year old inside after he didn’t come home at dark. I called him for 15 minutes with no response. My heart dropped thinking the worst! Finally I found him across the apartment complex with his MP3 player in his ears playing full blast. I of course lost my cool and yelled! I made him go in and take a shower and when he came out, I showed him this page…so he would know EXACTLY what could happen to him. Yes, we live in a small town, however we are not immune to this kind of activity! Three years ago almost, two of my sons friends who were brothers were abducted and killed by their own father…right here in our “SAFE” town. I reminded him of this as well. While I did scare the ever loving shit out of him by reading these statistics to him and reminding him of his friends deaths, I think I got my point across about this!
Peach said on October 7, 2011
I used this site for a school project (dont worry i cited it) ur information better be correct
Kloberdanz said on November 22, 2011
thanks buddy!! good work!!
Trisha said on December 21, 2011
I hate the fact that law abiding people, like myself, have to take so many precautions against criminals. Lock your car, your house, put belongings out of sight, don’t walk here or there at night, scare the crap out of your children. When will law abiding people have the power to make the criminal jump, lock themselves up, sleep with one eye open.
Rob said on December 28, 2011
@ Bill, your incompetence led to your child wondering off and you want to accuse the lady responsible of getting her back to you of a botched abduction attempt? Maybe you should focus on knowing where your kid is and not on who may or may not abduct your child. Watch your child not the people around. You should be thanking that lady who brought your child to the sheriff station.
David said on January 27, 2012
Correction: If 800,000 children are reported missing every year, that is not two every day, as mentioned in “Break up of child abduction statistics,” but 2,000 every day
God said on September 19, 2012
Completely misleading and false information. Delete yourself from the internet please. Instilling fear into parents is what kids DO NOT NEED.
Chas said on September 24, 2012
Speaking only for myself, I don’t trust any reported data that is not sourced. For all we know, the Admin here is making up these numbers.
Natasha said on October 7, 2012
I do question your statistics, but beyond that… writing “ONLY” in front of a number of children who were killed is a horrible choice of words. ONE IS TOO MANY IF ITS YOURS! I recommend The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website for information on this devistating reality