research paper topics on child abduction

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Article Contents

Introduction, runaways and thrownaways, missing involuntarily or due to a benign explanation, missing children with autism spectrum disorder, asd and drowning, present study, acknowledgements.

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Factors that predict the safe recovery of missing and abducted children

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Kerri L Reifel, Madison Sundberg-Alley, Karen L McCaulley, Anita S Hayne, Factors that predict the safe recovery of missing and abducted children, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice , Volume 17, 2023, paad078, https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paad078

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Over 2,000 children were reported as ‘critically missing’ to a federal law enforcement agency’s crisis watch unit between the years of 2014 and 2020. The present study examines characteristics from these cases to determine what factors may exist to help predict their safe recovery. Most children in the sample (89%) were recovered alive. Several factors that serve as predictors for a safe recovery were revealed, including being a multiple-victim incident; being reported last seen at school; the victim/offender relationship; and initial incident classification of abduction, as opposed to missing. A significant interaction between age and presence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) suggests that young victims with ASD are less likely to be recovered alive. Operational considerations for law enforcement are provided.

Missing and abducted children deservedly garner a great deal of media attention; however, most missing children are not abducted, contrary to stereotypical beliefs about the inherent dangers of childhood. There are many reasons why a child may go missing—they ran away, were abducted, were delayed in arriving home from a friend’s house, or there was miscommunication between caretakers. Based on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) National Crime Information Center (NCIC) missing person file, law enforcement entered 365,348 missing juveniles under the age of 18 into NCIC in 2020, a decrease from 421,394 in 2019 ( FBI, 2020 , 2021 ). It is important to note that these numbers are not unique counts—if the same child goes missing within the year, the child will be counted in the annual sum each time they are reported missing ( Sedlak et al ., 2017 ). Having a better understanding of not only how many children go missing, but also why they go missing and what factors contribute to their safe recovery, is needed in order to fully address the problem.

Law enforcement is not always contacted when a child goes missing. Sometimes parents do not consider their child missing because they know their child’s location despite them not being where they are supposed to be, the child returns before they are missed, or parents felt police assistance was not needed ( Hammer et al ., 2002a ; Wolak et al ., 2016 ). This is critical to note, because due to underreporting of missing child incidents, administrative law enforcement data do not accurately depict the actual level of missing child incidents that occur annually. Following the extant literature, the present study focuses on non-family abductions, family abductions, runaways/thrownaways, and otherwise missing children. Distinguishing characteristics of each are subsequently discussed in greater detail.

Children of all ages are victims of child abduction; however, the child’s developmental stage may help predict their relationship to the offender, which may influence the likelihood that the child is recovered safely. Miller et al . (2008) found that young children, those under 5 years old, and older children, those ages 12–17, are more likely to be abducted than children in the middle-childhood stage. Child victimization, including child abduction, should be viewed on a dependency continuum ( Finkelhor, 2008 ). Young children are highly dependent on their parents for survival and, due to their developmental status, often require near-constant supervision. Furthermore, they have little choice in who they live and associate with ( Finkelhor, 2008 ). Their level of dependency influences the likely relationship with an abduction perpetrator; young children are much less likely to be abducted by a stranger and more likely to be abducted by a family member ( Boudreaux et al ., 1999 ). In contrast, older children are more likely to have increased freedom and less supervision, decreasing the risk of abduction by a family member but increasing the likelihood of abduction by a stranger or acquaintance ( Beauregard et al., 2008 ; Collie and Shalev Greene, 2017 ).

Non-family abductions

A non-family abduction is an incident in which a non-family perpetrator (either a stranger or acquaintance) takes a child by force or threat of force and detains the child for a period of time without permission of the victim’s parent ( Finkelhor et al ., 2002 ). Victims of non-family abductions tend to be older, due to a multitude of developmental factors such as less parental supervision and stage of sexual maturity. A study of 584 victims of non-family abductions by Warren et al . (2020) found that the majority of victims were between the ages of 6 and 13, followed by adolescents ages 14–17. Past research on non-family abductions in nationwide household sampling study shows that victims were primarily taken from public spaces, such as streets, parks, and wooded areas, and are perpetrated by people known to the child ( Finkelhor et al ., 2002 ). It is worth noting that in more recent waves of this national study, violent first contacts in non-family abductions seem to be declining ( Wolak et al ., 2016 ).

Strangers abduct children for a multitude of reasons, to include sexual gratification, maternal desire, the desire to kill, and for profit ( Boudreaux et al ., 2000 ). The most common reason for stranger child abduction is sexual gratification of the offender ( Asdigian et al ., 1995 ; Boudreaux et al ., 1999 , 2000 ; Miller et al ., 2008 ; Warren et al ., 2016 ). However, studies have shown that non-family abductions perpetrated by acquaintances often have a sexual motive as well ( Finkelhor et al ., 2002 ; Warren et al ., 2020 ). For example, a study of 565 non-family child abductions perpetrated by strangers, acquaintances, and other non-family offenders revealed that 88.6% of abductions were sexually motivated ( Warren et al ., 2020 ).

There is a significant association between motive and ultimate outcome; in a study of 565 non-family child abductions derived from police files, crimes motivated by sexual desire were more likely to result in death ( Warren et al ., 2020 ). Odds of fatality differ based on offender-victim relationship, with 41% of acquaintance-abducted victims being found alive, compared with 60.6% of stranger-abducted victims ( Warren et al ., 2020 ). This could be due to concerns with the child’s ability to identify the offender and the rationale that a disclosure and subsequent identification could lead to imprisonment.

The public tends to perceive child abduction as particularly violent events perpetrated by an individual unknown to the victim. Often, these events are distinguished as a subset of non-family abduction in the literature as stereotypical abductions, which, despite their name, are rare. Wolak et al . (2016) define a stereotypical abduction/kidnapping as one in which a slight acquaintance or stranger moves a child at least 20 feet or holds the child at least 1 hour, and in which one or more of the following occurs: the child is detained overnight, is transported 50 or more miles, is held for ransom, is abducted with intent to keep the child, or the child is killed.

A 2011 study of 105 cases of stereotypical abductions derived from a nationally representative law enforcement survey found that strangers accounted for approximately 62% of stereotypical abductions, while a slight acquaintance accounted for 38% of the cases ( Wolak et al ., 2016 ). Most abductions involved the taking of a single child, but in 19% of the cases, multiple victims were taken ( Wolak et al ., 2016 ). Not all stereotypical abductions are reported to law enforcement. Only 69% of the abductions in the sample were reported to the police, 31% of the sample were not reported for reasons including caretakers being generally unaware of a child’s whereabouts or the child was returned before someone noticed they were missing ( Wolak et al ., 2016 ). Eighty-one percent of the 105 victims were female; 51% of the victims were girls ages 12–17, 30% were girls ages 11 or younger, and 12% were boys ages 11 or younger, while half of all stereotypical kidnappings in 2011 were sexually motivated crimes against adolescent female victims ( Wolak et al ., 2016 ). Stereotypical abductions are unlikely to end in the death of the victim; in fact, the number of homicides in stereotypical abduction cases appear to be decreasing.

Despite public perception, most children who are victims of non-family abduction are recovered alive. Studies in which samples are derived from police files also often report less optimistic percentages of survival ( Beasley et al . 2009 ; Warren et al ., 2020 ) compared with national surveys. In a national household sampling study on missing children, Finkelhor et al . (2002) estimated that 58,200 children were victims of non-family abductions in 1997, compared with only 115 victims of the more restricted stereotypical kidnapping. Ninety-nine percent of surveyed non-family abduction victims were returned alive, compared with 57% of stereotypical kidnapping victims. Though in a more recent wave of this same study, Wolak et al . (2016) found that 92% of stereotypical kidnapping victims were recovered alive, suggesting changes in offense dynamics or perhaps police response may be impacting the odds of a victim’s survival positively.

Family abductions

Family abductions are those in which the primary abductor has a familial relationship to the victim. Cases of family abduction are more likely to involve young children, typically those under the age of six. Furthermore, there are generally no significant gender differences, with male and female children being equally likely to be victims of family abduction ( Hammer et al ., 2002b ; Walsh et al ., 2016 ). In studies utilizing both administrative data (NIBRS) ( Walsh et al ., 2016 ) and household sampling data ( Hammer et al ., 2002b ), older children were less likely to be victims of family abduction. This is likely due to their increased independence and the ability to choose their associates compared with young children ( Finkelhor, 2008 ).

In a study of family abductions on a nationally representative sample of the USA, Finkelhor et al. (2017) found that 90% of family abductions were perpetrated by parents. While this study found that females perpetrated the majority of these cases, a second definition of ‘family kidnapping’ was utilized during the survey which included verbiage about victim’s perceived likelihood of harm. In these cases, males were more likely to be the perpetrator (Finkelhor et al ., 2017). Therefore, it appears that though women are more likely to be involved broadly in family abductions, males are more likely to perpetrate incidents that include elements of active child taking—more in line with definitions of kidnapping—as opposed to passive disappearances and concealment of children ( Finkelhor et al. 2017 ).

Another study revealed that approximately one-third of the estimated 203,900 family abductions perpetrated in 1997 were committed by multiple offenders ( Hammer et al ., 2002b ). Forty-five percent of family abductors were in their thirties and the use of force, threat of force, and/or use of weapons were less common in family abductions than in non-family abductions. Many of the children in these cases were purposely concealed from the aggrieved parent and the primary intent of these abductions was to prevent child contact with the aggrieved parent or to permanently affect custodial privileges ( Hammer et al ., 2002b ). Ninety-one percent of children in a sample of family abduction victims were located and returned to the aggrieved parent, while another small percentage were located but not returned ( Hammer et al ., 2002b ).

Runaway and thrownaway children represent the largest segment of missing children. In line with the dependency continuum previously discussed, runaways and thrownaways are generally older teens ( Gambon and Gerwitz O’Brien, 2020 ; Hammer et al ., 2002a ). A clinical report by Gambon and Gerwitz O’Brien (2020) reviewing available literature regarding multiple studies of runaway children offers that both youth of colour and youth identifying as LGBTQ+ are disproportionately represented among runaways and thrownaways. The most common reason given by youth for running away is to flee a negative home environment ( Gambon and Gerwitz O’Brien, 2020 ). This is consistent with findings of a nationally representative survey by Hammer et al . (2002a) in which 21% of the estimated 1,682,900 children in the 1999 sample reported having been physically or sexually abused at home in the year prior to the runaway/thrownaway incident or feared abuse upon returning home. The majority of incidents in this sample lasted between 24 h and 1 week. Thirty percent of children travelled between 1 and 10 miles from their home, while 31% travelled between 10 and 50 miles. More than 99% of the children in this sample eventually returned home ( Hammer et al ., 2002a ).

Children missing involuntarily often fail to return home due to becoming lost, injured, or stranded. A national probability sample estimated that while 204,500 children were estimated to be missing involuntarily, lost, or injured in 1999, only 68,100 were reported missing to law enforcement ( Sedlak et al. 2005) . These children are frequently lost in wooded areas or parks and are most commonly White, male, and older ( Sedlak et al ., 2005 ). Other children are missing for a benign explanation, such as failing to return home by an agreed upon time, or due to miscommunication between caretakers. Teenagers disproportionately accounted for cases in both categories ( Sedlak et al ., 2005 ). A report on children involuntarily missing or missing for benign reasons by Sedlak et al . (2017) showed a statistically significant decline in children missing for benign explanations (MBE) between two waves of national probability data; however, the sample of MBE cases was low and therefore is an unstable prediction of the true prevalence of these cases.

A missing child with special needs only amplifies the concern for the likelihood of safe recovery. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in particular are at increased risk for elopement incidents than children without ASD. An elopement is defined as an event in which a dependent person exposes themself to potential danger by leaving a supervised, safe place ( Anderson et al ., 2012 ). Often, in cases of missing children addressed by law enforcement, this means that a child has wandered away from a safe location, such as their home, are not under the supervision of an adult, and their whereabouts are unknown to their caregiver. Their special needs put them at amplified risk for injury or death compared with other children without these special needs. In a study of families with children diagnosed with ASD, Anderson et al . (2012) found that 49% of ASD-affected children had an elopement incident after the age of four, suggesting the possibility that many families with young children diagnosed with ASD may experience an elopement event comparative to families without children with ASD, and law enforcement should be aware of the challenges associated should they be called upon to help locate the child. Of these children, 53% were missing long enough to cause concern. The most common motive reported for eloping by parents was that the child ‘simply enjoys running/exploring,’ followed by ‘tries to reach a place he/she enjoys’ ( Anderson et al ., 2012 ).

Risk factors for eloping

Younger children are more likely to elope than older ones ( Kiely et al ., 2016 ). Children who are less likely to respond to their name are more likely to have a history of elopements, which complicates the process of locating a missing child ( Anderson et al ., 2012 ). Furthermore, non-verbal children with autism may not be able to respond to an individual calling for them, even if they have the tendency to physically respond to their name in non-emergent situations. While other young children without ASD may find themselves in physical danger should they wander away, they may have more social tools to rely upon to ask for help in resolving the situation. Anderson et al ’.s study (2012) revealed associations between elopement and developmental quotients, with elopers more likely to have a lower intellectual and communication developmental quotient than non-elopers.

Elopement fatalities

Elopements can pose lethal risk to children. In a review of 808 elopements, 17% ended in a fatality ( McIlwain and Fournier, 2017 ). Likely due to transitioning in and out of school, elopement fatalities are more common in the summer months. Those at highest risk for a fatality were children who eloped during a family or social gathering ( McIlwain and Fournier, 2017 ). While it may seem that these gatherings would increase supervision, it is likely that they more commonly introduce greater distraction and decreased supervision, or caretakers expect that additional eyes will be on the child and therefore the child is unlikely to wander off unnoticed. While children ages 5–9 predominated as fatal elopers in the sample overall, children 5 and under were at highest risk for fatality while eloping, with 60% of elopements in children 5 and under ending in fatality ( McIlwain and Fournier, 2017 ). Out of all the fatalities in the sample, 71% were caused by accidental drowning ( McIlwain and Fournier, 2017 ).

Drowning fatalities are an unfortunate consequence of some elopements. A study of ASD elopement-related drowning fatalities reported by the media revealed that the most frequent location for drowning incidents were ponds (52%), followed by lakes (13%) and rivers (13%) ( Guan and Li, 2017 ). Where data were available, all children who were victims of a drowning fatality were found in a body of water no greater than 1,000 m from their residence ( Guan and Li, 2017 ). Victims of unintentional drownings in the sample were primarily boys, aged 7–8, who eloped from their residence in the afternoon hours; however, the sample size of this study was very small ( N  = 23), so these findings alone should not be considered predictors for who might be at greater risk for an accidental drowning fatality ( Guan and Li, 2017 ). Instead, law enforcement agencies should work under the assumption that any child with ASD, regardless of age or gender, are at higher risk for drowning than children without ASD and that nearby bodies of water should be carefully searched.

As children age, they experience social, emotional, and physical changes. Type and likelihood of missing child incident can be influenced by those developmental features. Therefore, it is important to understand trends, patterns, and characteristics of missing child incidents in order to provide, develop, and improve upon investigative resources, search efforts, and prevention programs ( Boudreaux et al ., 1999 ; Shelton et al ., 2016 ). The current study sought to expand on previous studies by not only exploring the problem of missing children, but also examining the predictors of recovering children alive following a missing child report. More specifically, the researchers posed the following questions:

Research Question #1: Of children who are reported critically missing, how frequently are they recovered alive? Research Question #2: What victim characteristics and circumstances of the disappearance have predictive value for recovery outcome?

The authors obtained the data sample from notifications of ‘critically missing’ children reported to a federal law enforcement agency’s crisis watch unit. A child was deemed as critically missing by the reporting agency based on the circumstances surrounding the child’s disappearance placing them at higher risk of injury or death. The reports of critically missing children included alleged abductions, voluntary departures, and involuntary departures of the victims. In this paper, the term victim is used to describe both children who voluntarily departed, were lost or missing for a benign reason, or who were abducted. The initial dataset consisted of 2,324 victims from 1,910 incidents across 7 years (2014–2020). When excluding cases with missing data on the variables of interest, the final sample utilized in the regression analyses included 2,283 victims from 1,876 incidents.

Sample demographics

The average age of victims in the sample was 7.5 years old. Victim sex was essentially equal, with 51.8% of the victims being female. Victims were primarily White (43.3%), followed by African American/Black (29.4%). Eighty-nine percent of the missing children in the sample were recovered alive at the conclusion of the data collection window in 2021. Demographic differences between victims recovered alive and deceased can be found in Table 1 . Of the cases with outcome descriptions detailed enough to know what occurred beyond being recovered alive or deceased, 58% of the children were victims of abduction while 23% were voluntary departures or runaways. Due to the crisis watch unit’s inclusion of cases of ‘critically missing’ children, it is not surprising that the majority of cases were abductions, despite runaway events occurring at much higher rates in the population.

Victim and case characteristics by victim outcome

* p  < 0.05; ** p  < 0.01; *** p  < 0.001.

a Fisher’s exact test used to test significance due to several cells with five or fewer cases per cell.

Measures and procedure

A binary dependent variable of victim outcome was used, specifically, if the victim was recovered alive or deceased. The authors determined victim outcome by reviewing the crisis watch unit’s resolution communications and supplementing case details for coding with law enforcement reports, bulletins, partner agency communications and, when necessary, open sources such as online news articles and law enforcement social media posts to obtain and verify details of the outcome. When information was available via multiple sources, demographic, case dynamics, and recovery details were cross-referenced between the sources. Regarding the independent variables, the authors focussed on those that would have been known about the victim at the time the child went missing. While a subsequent investigation may yield additional information that could impact the outcome for the child, the goal for this article is to provide law enforcement with findings that are based only on what they may know when receiving a missing child report. Consequently, the independent variables measured included: victim age; victim sex; victim race; if there were multiple victims; if the victim was autistic; if another adult was assaulted during the offense; if the initial report was labelled as child abducted or child missing; the location the victim was last seen; and the reported victim-offender relationship, which included the possibility of ‘no offender’ for those children who left on their own. Table 1 shows the distributions of the variables across the sample.

Data analyses

For the first research question, the authors used univariate measures to determine how frequently children are recovered alive after being reported missing. Subsequent bivariate analyses between the dependent variable (recovery status; alive = 1, deceased = 0) and independent variables were then used to initially explore relationships. Finally, since incidents could have more than one offender or victim, a random effects multivariate logistic regression clustered at the incident level was used to identify which variables predicted recovering a victim alive. To avoid overfitting, only independent variables significant at the bivariate level were included in the logistic regression. Though not significant, victim age was also included as it was necessary to test an interaction effect with autistic victims.

Research Question #1: Of children who are reported critically missing, how frequently are they recovered alive?

Of those cases that were reported to the federal law enforcement agency’s crisis watch unit between the years of 2014 and 2020, 89% of missing and runaway children were recovered alive. The subsequent research question delved deeper into the predictors of children returning alive or being found deceased.

Research Question #2: What victim characteristics and circumstances of the disappearance have predictive value for recovery outcome?

The independent variables were initially compared at the bivariate level. Approximately 14% of deceased victims were autistic, while approximately 8% of victims recovered alive were autistic ( χ 2  = 12.67, df = 1, p  < 0.001). Thirty-two percent of victims who were recovered alive were abducted or went missing with another victim as compared with only 16% of deceased victims ( χ 2  = 25.02, df = 1, p  < 0.001). The initial report of the child’s disappearance, whether they were reported as missing or abducted, was also important. Of the deceased victims, 60.4% were initially reported as missing ( χ 2  = 50.79, df = 1, p  < 0.001). Location also played a role in the likelihood of a victim being recovered alive. Children who were reported last seen at school had a higher likelihood of being recovered alive as compared with children reported last seen at a park or playground ( χ 2  = 39.80, df = 3, p  < 0.001). Finally, at the bivariate level, a child was more likely to be recovered alive when the biological parent was the offender and less likely for other victim/offender relationships, aside from incidents in which the offender was an online acquaintance, in which case victims were more likely to be recovered alive than deceased ( χ 2  = 15.22, df = 7, p  < 0.05).

The researchers included the preceding significant variables in the multivariate logistic regression. Though age was non-significant in bivariate analyses, it was included to determine if there was an interaction effect between victim age and autism status. Results from the logistic regression are presented in Table 2 . When there were multiple victims reported abducted or missing, the odds of being recovered alive increased (OR = 5.83, p  < 0.001). Compared with abducted victims, being initially reported as missing decreased the likelihood that they would be recovered alive (OR = 0.01, p  < 0.001). Compared with incidents in which there was no offender because the child left on their own, only incidents in which the offender was an online acquaintance were more likely to be recovered alive, though this relationship was not statistically significant. In contrast with bivariate analyses in which children abducted by biological parents or online acquaintances were more likely to be recovered alive than victims who were abducted by individuals of other relationships, every other victim-offender relationship type aside from internet acquaintance (biological parents, stepparent or parent’s intimate partner, victim’s current or ex-intimate partner, stranger, unknown, and other) demonstrated reduced odds of a victim being recovered alive, all at statistically significant levels. This means that, when controlling for the other predictor variables in the regression, biological parental relationship with the victim no longer predicted higher odds of being recovered alive compared with other non-biological relationships, as it did when addressed individually in the bivariate analysis.

Random effects logistic regression of victim and event characteristics on the likelihood of recovering a child alive, clustered at the incident level a ( N  = 2,283)

a 1,876 incidents with 2,283 victims.

b Reference group—other.

c Reference group—no offender/child left on their own.

Finally, there was a demonstrated interaction effect between victim age and whether the victim was autistic on the likelihood of being recovered alive (OR = 1.75, p  < 0.001). Figure 1 contains the predicted probabilities of being recovered alive by victim age and autism status. Using this data, the predicted probability of a 6-year-old with autism being found alive at the conclusion of a case was 71% as compared with 89% for a 6-year-old without autism. The probabilities converge at higher ages—a 14-year-old without autism has an 89% chance of being recovered alive as compared with 91% with autism.

Interaction of victim age and autism on being recovered alive

The overwhelming majority of children in this sample were recovered alive, revealing several factors that can serve as predictors for safe recovery. Children who were initially reported as abducted, as opposed to missing, may be more likely to be recovered alive as their disappearance may result in immediate law enforcement attention. A potential caveat to this finding is the number of children involved in a single incident. Children who were involved in a multi-victim incident are more likely to be recovered alive, this could be because children who go missing with others have left with the intention to return (e.g. ‘adventuring’) or because they are more likely to be victims of a familial abduction and therefore are less likely to be killed as a result of the abduction. In instances of child abduction for sexual purposes, violent offenders who are more likely to kill their victims may be less inclined to abduct multiple victims at once due to the difficulty in controlling two or more children at the same time.

Additionally, the reported location a victim was last seen is also a predictor for safe recovery, with children who were last seen leaving school having a higher chance of being recovered alive than children last seen at a park or playground. This could possibly be due to a parent or guardian expecting a child to return shortly after school ends, while children playing at a park might not be expected home for multiple hours. Failure to return at an expected time may result in a parent noticing a child is missing soon after the incident resulting in prompt police action, or alternatively, a delay in noticing and a delayed response. Since children typically depart school at a routine time and direction each day, timelines may be more concise and there may be more eyewitnesses available in the moments leading up to the child’s disappearance; additionally, there may be increased likelihood of cameras or other surveillance devices, which may be fruitful sources of evidence for law enforcement. In contrast, it may be difficult to confirm where a child was officially last seen if they go missing from a park or other outdoor area. Furthermore, offenders do not require an explanation for lingering in most public areas, such as parks, but their presence may be questioned in a more secure location such as a school. Identifying the last known location of the victim and/or the initial contact location of the victim and any offender significantly increases case solvability. In a study on missing child homicides, case solvability rates increased to nearly 80% when initial contact location was known ( Brown et al ., 2006 ).

The relationship of the offender to the victim also contributes to the likelihood that the victim will be recovered alive. Compared with children who left on their own, victims abducted by their biological parents, stepparents, or intimate partner of a biological parent, a current or ex-intimate partner, or a stranger had reduced odds of being recovered alive. Of these categories, victims abducted by a biological parent were more likely to be recovered alive than victims abducted by a stepparent or a stranger. While past research has demonstrated that family abductions are less fatal than non-family abductions, the reduced odds of recovering a victim alive in family abductions in this study’s regression analyses may speak to NCMEC’s and the crisis watch unit’s correct identification of ‘critically endangered’ children—resulting in more lethal family abductions in this sample than in the general population.

Victims who were abducted by an online acquaintance were more likely to be recovered alive than to be recovered deceased in both our bivariate and multivariate analyses. Reasons why online offenders are more likely to release their victim merits attention in future research. One explanation for these findings may be that these particular children are compliant victims, meaning that they have willingly engaged in relationships with adults that they cannot legally consent to, often for extended periods of time. In instances of compliant victimization, offenders may not feel the need, nor the desire, to kill their victims; in fact, they often wish to prolong the relationship for continued sexual encounters ( Lanning, 2005 ). Comparatively, in impulsive kidnappings, offenders often complete the sexual act that motivated the offense and only then consider the risk of the child disclosing the assault. Homicide, in some cases, may therefore be a cover-up measure in impulsive, sexually motivated abductions ( Warren et al ., 2020 ).

Likelihood of a safe recovery of autistic victims increased with victim age. Young autistic victims were less likely to be recovered alive compared with similarly aged victims without ASD. The recovery of victims with ASD may be further complicated by a victim’s inability to communicate (if non-verbal) or fear of strangers, so these factors should be considered when searching for a missing autistic child.

Operational considerations

The initial response of law enforcement after responding to a missing or abducted incident is critical to the recovery of the child. Depending on the circumstances reported, investigation and response will vary, as a reported voluntary departure differs from a child who has wandered away, or a child who was riding their bike to school and never arrived. Each case is unique and careful consideration should be given to the child and the circumstances in which they reportedly went missing.

When responding to any report of a missing child, it is important to review the information captured in the report, specifically the events leading up to a child being reported missing. Developing a timeline of events, identifying locations where the child was last seen, and considering unique characteristics of the child, such as age; ASD diagnosis; if the child left on their own volition; past runaway history; or if the child is missing alone or with another child are important factors to discuss at the outset of a case. When developing a timeline, we stress the importance of obtaining independent, verifiable, confirmed sightings of the missing child, such as locating multiple eyewitnesses or a camera with a timestamp. Narrowing down the specifics of a child’s last known actions and locations should be a priority early in the investigation as these details, when verified, can impact future investigative steps taken.

Understanding the family’s dynamics at the time of the missing incident is critical and should be considered in relation to the child’s age. Whether the child may be running away from a turbulent home life, thrown out on the street by a caregiver, be vulnerable for a parental abduction in the throes of family upheaval, or end up as an opportunistic victim for a non-family abduction, law enforcement should conduct a thorough investigation into the family’s lifestyle. In-depth investigation into family dynamics may reveal critical information and may even help identify potential suspects in crimes or identify false allegations of abduction or missing children ( Canning et al ., 2011 ).

Especially necessary in incidents of older missing children, though increasingly important in cases of young missing children, is a thorough search of any social media accounts utilized by the victim. Often, there is a great wealth of information to be gleaned from these sites. Investigators should consider that many children have social media accounts not known to their parents or caregivers, so searches for and of accounts beyond those reported by a parent should be conducted. For similar reasons, investigators should interview people outside the family for further information on the victim. Especially in cases where the victim is an older child, teachers, peers, coaches, and other non-relatives are critical sources of information.

What we have learned from this research project is that the initial report (abducted versus missing) tends to align with the actual circumstances of the incident. Three-quarters of the cases in this sample were accurately classified at the time of initial report. For example, if a child is reported as a voluntary departure, our study showed that once the child is recovered, they claim to have voluntarily departed. The same pattern holds true for developmentally delayed children who may have wandered off. At the conclusion of an investigation, it is likely that the child did in fact wander away from their location. Therefore, the information that is reported initially to law enforcement should be considered an accurate point from which to launch an investigation until evidence suggests otherwise. In some cases, it may be necessary to work multiple theories of a missing child, for example, in cases where a child is falsely reported missing. Based on our statistical findings, law enforcement agencies should pursue the investigation based on the initial report while simultaneously verifying details and analysing case dynamics to ensure an alternative explanation for the child’s disappearance is not more probable.

When responding to a missing child who is developmentally delayed or has been diagnosed with ASD, research indicates that these children behave a specific way, such as being drawn to water and therefore at higher risk for drowning incidents ( Guan and Li, 2017 ) or less likely to respond to hearing their name ( Kiely et al ., 2016 ). It is important to note that while general behaviour can be applied to certain developmental issues, each child is still unique, and it is important to collect as much information as possible from the parents or caregivers to focus the search. Timeliness is also critical when dealing with developmentally delayed children or those with ASD because it is easy for them to become lost, disoriented, or injured.

Regarding a child who is abducted by an acquaintance or a stranger, though rare, research suggests that if they are going to be murdered, it will likely happen within a few hours after they are abducted ( Brown et al ., 2006 ). Therefore, if a child abduction is witnessed or is believed likely based on the facts at hand, it is critical that law enforcement efforts begin as quickly as possible.

Limitations and future directions

The present study presents several limitations. Perhaps the biggest limitation is the fact that not all children whose whereabouts are unknown are reported missing to law enforcement. Even if reported missing, law enforcement does not always report a missing child incident to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Therefore, our sample is not wholly representative of missing children in the USA. The sample of children for this study was drawn from NCMEC reports to a federal law enforcement agency’s crisis watch unit, meaning that for a case to be included, it must have first been reported to NCMEC prior to being filtered into the watch unit. Furthermore, this sample includes only children deemed ‘critically missing’ or those who are perceived by NCMEC to be at higher risk of injury or death due to the circumstances around their disappearance. As such, the sample of cases may be characteristically different from other incidents of missing children not escalated to ‘critically missing’ or they may have received a different level of police response. Additionally, in order to determine the resolutions of some cases, it was necessary to verify and garner details through open sources, such as media publications online. These sources are not as reliable as law enforcement sources, nor does the media report on every missing child case. For example, chronic runaways likely receive less media attention than the victim of a stereotypical abduction.

Future research should include more detailed demographic information, to include victim sexual orientation, past abuse and neglect history, family instability, and history of substance abuse. It is prudent that we better identify what makes some children higher risk for these incidents so they can be prevented. ASD and child wandering/elopement should also be explored further within the context of missing child incidents.

The majority of children reported as missing or abducted were recovered alive. While this is true for cases of missing children in general, there are some factors that increase the likelihood of being recovered alive, such as going missing or being abducted with another juvenile; being abducted by a biological parent, as opposed to an offender of another relation; being reported abducted as opposed to missing; and going missing from school, as opposed to a park/playground or their residence. Additionally, there are some factors that decrease one’s likelihood of being recovered alive, including diagnosis of ASD or being abducted by a non-biological parent.

The vast majority of missing child incidents are those of runaway or thrownaway children; despite abducted children dominating the public’s attention. While it may seem that children who runaway voluntarily are at lower risk of harm than those forcefully abducted, runaways are at high risk for violent victimization and sex trafficking. It is imperative that these children receive equal attention in recovery by law enforcement officials. Runaways, thrownaways, and compliant victims of abductors may pose investigative challenges, but they should still be considered exploited children and their cases handled carefully.

Each missing child case is unique and should be treated as such by law enforcement. All details provided at the onset of the case should be carefully considered and utilized to inform incident response. Response should be rapid and exhaustive to maximize the odds of a victim’s safe recovery. The findings of this study support the notion that stranger child abduction homicides are exceedingly rare despite the media attention they garner, and that most missing children are recovered alive.

We want to acknowledge former Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) fellows Hannah Robison and Charlie Robinson, Crime Analyst Victoria Clausen, and former Research Coordinator Sarah Craun for their contributions to this project.

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Kidnapping and hostage-taking: a review of effects, coping and resilience

Introduction.

Although the history of kidnapping and hostage-taking is a very long one, it is only relatively recently that there has been a systematic attempt to understand the effects, both long-term and short-term, on individuals and their families. This is an important issue for clinical and academic reasons. The advice of mental health professionals is sought with increasing frequency with regard to the strategic management of hostage incidents and the clinical management of those who have been abducted. There is evidence to suggest that how best to help those who have been taken hostage is a sensitive and complex matter, and those who deal with such individuals should be as well informed as possible since such events can have long-term adverse consequences, particularly on young children.

This paper addresses the following:

• the background in terms of the history of this phenomenon, the motives behind it and the authorities' responses thereto;
• the psychological and physical effects of being taken hostage;
• coping and survival strategies;
• issues which require further research.

Early texts refer to the kidnapping of Abram's nephew (Lot), Julius Caesar and Richard the Lionheart. In medieval times, knights displayed their noble heritage through heraldic devices in the hope that their higher perceived market value would increase their chances of being kept alive for ransom rather than being killed. In the 17th century, children were stolen from their families for ‘export’ to the North American colonies as servants and labourers. (Hence, ‘kid’ meaning ‘child’, and ‘nap’ or ‘nab’ meaning ‘to snatch’.) Press-ganging was a means of ensuring an adequate supply of personnel for the merchant fleet during the 19th century.

Certain high profile events, much due to the efforts of the media, highlighted the psychological impact of kidnapping. For example, one of the earliest was the kidnapping on 1 March 1932 by Bruno Hauptmann, a German carpenter, of Colonel Charles Lindbergh's son for ransom. 1 The suffering of the child's parents, and the difficulties of the police enquiry, were exacerbated by widespread speculation and misinformation, and serial random notes. The mutilated body of the child was found and the perpetrator was executed on 3 April 1936. This event caused public revulsion, and the revision of the authorities' bargaining and investigating methods, particularly by the FBI, and even the suicide of a waitress to the family, who was cleared in the enquiries.

In 1972, the ‘Black September’ group (an auxiliary faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation) took hostage the Israeli wrestling team at the Munich Olympics. The unsuccessful negotiations, and the tragic deaths of the whole team during an abortive rescue effort by the German Border Police, were relayed throughout the world by the international media. 2 Also, after this tragedy, many international authorities revised their strategies for dealing with hostage incidents and sieges.

Motives for taking hostages

Motives can be divided into ‘expressive’ (i.e. an effort to voice and/or publicize a grievance or express a frustrated emotion) and ‘instrumental’ (i.e. to obtain a particular outcome such as ransom). 3 In reality it is usually difficult to identify any single motive, particularly when the event is terrorist-inspired. Material motives (e.g. ransom) may be conveniently masked by alleged religious, political and moral ones. Moreover, ransoms may be used to fund political and religious activities. Also, some insurgency groups sell hostages on to other groups for their own purposes.

The taking of foreign hostages has become a particularly popular modus operandi for terrorists (who tend to be well-organized and selective in their ‘target’ hostages), particularly due to their cynical but generally effective use of extensive media coverage. Also, the frequency of kidnapping of overseas personnel has markedly increased in Afghanistan since the US invasion in 2001. Unfortunately, the death toll among hostages is high in Afghanistan and Iraq. A particularly distasteful feature of hostage-taking in these countries is the video-taped executions of hostages, such as those of Nick Berg (a US businessman) and Ronald Schultz (a US security consultant), and their broadcast by Al Jazeera or Al Arabia: such broadcasts represent, however, a powerful psychological weapon, which, as indicated by Pape, 4 runs the risk of losing public support and sympathy.

Other areas which have become high-risk ones for hostage-taking are Nigeria and Colombia. Most incidents in the former are carried out by criminal gangs for ransom, such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta – MEND. Ransoms in both countries are often on a modest scale to ensure they can be paid. This strategy is sometimes referred to as ‘Express Kidnapping’. The frequency of hostage incidents in Colombia has increased 1600% between 1987 and 2000. 5 The motives there appear to be largely criminal, for financial gain, rather than political. Sometimes such events are described as ‘Economic Extortive Kidnapping’. These events can have demoralizing effects on families, who may lose all faith in supportive agencies and organizations, according to a follow-up study by Navia and Ossa. 5

Authorities' responses

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the prevailing model of dealing with such incidents, particularly in the prisons of the USA, had been the ‘Suppression Model’ (i.e. the use of overwhelming physical force). 6 This approach can still be used successfully as was shown by the interventions of the Special Air Service in response to the Iranian Embassy Siege in 1980 in London. However, such successes are not common, and they require extremely careful planning and execution. Armed response has now generally yielded to the techniques of negotiation and conflict resolution in recognition of the risks that an armed response creates for hostages. Such risks were tragically demonstrated at the 1972 Munich Olympics. 2 More recently, the catastrophic failures by the Russian authorities to rescue the patrons of the Dubrovka theatre in Moscow in 2002 and the children and staff of the Beslan school in 2004, confirmed how risky armed intervention by the authorities can be. The last two incidents resulted in the deaths of 130 and 334 hostages, respectively.

From a psychological point of view, negotiation ‘buys time’ to enable:

• hostages, perpetrators and the authorities to ‘cool down’;
• the authorities to clarify the motives of the perpetrator(s);
• the authorities to gather intelligence;
• the authorities to formulate a rescue strategy (should negotiation fail).

Unfortunately, from the hostages' point of view progress may seem to be very slow, and they commonly wonder why the authorities do not ‘do something’, including effecting their rescue by force.

Psychological and physical effects of being a hostage

For ethical and practical reasons, particularly if children are involved, the follow-up of hostages on release is difficult. 7 Thus, the scientific and clinical database is relatively modest. Much reliance is therefore placed on autobiographical and biographical accounts of high profile hostages (e.g. Waite, 8 Slater, 9 Keenan 10 and Shaw 11 ).

Psychological effects

In general terms, the psychological impact of being taken hostage is similar to that of being exposed to other trauma, including terrorist incidents and disasters for adults 12 and children. 13

Typical adult reactions include:

• Cognitive : impaired memory and concentration; confusion and disorientation; intrusive thoughts (‘flashbacks’) and memories; denial (i.e. that the event has happened); hypervigilance and hyperarousal (a state of feeling too aroused, with a profound fear of another incident);
• Emotional : shock and numbness; fear and anxiety (but panic is not common); 14 helplessness and hopelessness; dissociation (feeling numb and ‘switched off’ emotionally); anger (at anybody – perpetrators, themselves and the authorities); anhedonia (loss of pleasure in doing that which was previously pleasurable); depression (a reaction to loss); guilt (e.g. at having survived if others died, and for being taken hostage);
• Social : withdrawal; irritability; avoidance (of reminders of the event).

Denial (i.e. a complete or partial failure to acknowledge what has really happened) has often been maligned as a response to extreme stress, but it has survival value (at least in the short term) by allowing the individual a delayed period during which he/she has time to adjust to a painful reality. For example, some hostages in the Moscow theatre siege initially believed that the appearance of the heavily armed Chechnyan rebels was part of the military musical performance. 15

Two extreme reactions have also been noted, namely, ‘frozen fright’ and ‘psychological infantilism’. 16 The former refers to a paralysis of the normal emotional reactivity of the individual, and the latter reaction is characterized by regressed behaviour such as clinging and excessive dependence on the captors.

Extended periods of captivity may also lead to ‘learned helplessness’ 17 in which individuals come to believe that no matter what they do to improve their circumstances, nothing is effective. This is reminiscent of the automaton-like state reported by concentration camp victims (‘walking corpses’). 18

Genuine psychopathology has also been noted. A follow-up study of ransom victims in Sardinia found that about 50% suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and about 30% experienced major depression. 19 The International Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders (ICD-10) 20 also recognizes the ‘Enduring personality change after a catastrophic experience’ (F62.0) as a possible chronic outcome after a hostage incident. This condition is characterized by:

• a hostile or mistrustful attitude;
• social withdrawal and estrangement;
• feelings of emptiness or hopelessness;
• a chronic feeling of being ‘on edge’ as if constantly threatened.

For the diagnosis to be made the symptoms must have endured for at least two years.

The severe and sustained impact on children is demonstrated by several abductions, including that of the children involved in the Chowchilla incident in San Francisco. Terr 21 confirmed, after that incident (in which 26 children and their driver were abducted and held in a vehicle underground) all the children displayed signs of PTSD, and some symptoms worsened over time (e.g. shame, pessimism and ‘death dreams’).

Denial, ‘frozen fright’, ‘psychological infantilism’ and ‘learned helplessness’ are not age-specific. Children may also display: school refusal, loss of interest in studies, dependent and regressed behaviour, preoccupation with the event, playing at being the ‘rescuer’, stubborn and oppositional behaviour, and risk-taking. The impact can be particularly serious if the children have been detained over an extended period and if the incident entailed a breach of trust. 22

Physical effects

Hostages are likely to have to endure, particularly during sustained periods of captivity, an exacerbation of pre-existent physical conditions, such as asthma and diabetes. Also, the detention itself may generate new conditions due to a lack of the basics of healthy living, such as a nutritious diet, warmth, exercise, fresh air and sleep.

At-risk and resilience factors

As yet there is no clear delineation of all factors which conduce to an adverse outcome following being taken hostage. However, there is evidence that women (especially younger women), more than men, are at risk of such an outcome, as are those of low educational level, and those exposed to an extended period of captivity. 23 An extensive review 24 also suggests that the following may contribute to a poorer post-release adjustment: passive-dependent traits; a belief that one's fate is exclusively in the hands of others; and a dogmatic-authoritarian attitude. Among children, younger age and pre-existent family problems, 15 and the loss of education and the need for post-incident medical care 25 may also contribute to adjustment problems.

In recent years, there has been a move in the trauma field from a ‘pathogenic’ model (which emphasizes illness and problems of adjustment) to a ‘resilience’ model (which emphasizes coping and ‘personal growth’ through adversity). While there are uncertainties as to how best to define and measure resilience, this perspective offers a more positive and optimistic approach. Certainly, it is worth emphasizing that many survivors do appear to cope over time, particularly if their family and social environment is supportive. Moreover, a number of high profile hostages (e.g. Terry Waite 8 ) have demonstrated how they have used their experiences constructively after their release. Adopting a ‘resilience’ approach to this kind of trauma may also enhance our understanding the best coping strategies for hostages during their captivity, and for the development of better post-incident care management for them.

Coping and survival strategies

Although it is usually regarded as an ‘effect’ of being taken hostage, the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ will be regarded here as a means of coping and surviving since it certainly enables, on many occasions, hostages to deal with extreme and life-threatening circumstances. The term was first coined by criminologist, Nils Bejerot, to describe the unexpected reactions of hostages both during and after an armed bank raid in Sweden in 1973. 26 It was noted that, despite being subject to a life-threatening situation by the raiders, the hostages (three women and one man) forged positive relationships with their captors even to the point of helping to finance their defence after their apprehension. Conversely, the hostage-takers began to bond with their captives. This paradoxical reaction has been noted in many other incidents. The 10-year-old girl, Natascha Kampusch, who was held captive for eight years bonded with her abductor to such an extent that, on his suicide immediately after her escape, she blamed the police for his death and clearly grieved his death. 27

It is not clear why some individuals react in this fashion while others do not. Some merely seek to escape. For example, in Georgia, Peter Shaw, a British financial adviser, was detained in freezing underground conditions and regularly beaten. Fearing his imminent execution, he courageously sought escape. Others maintain hostility to their captors and refusal to accede to requests to convert to Islam (e.g. Yvonne Ridley, 28 a British journalist held for 11 days by the Taliban). However, certain conditions do increase the likelihood of the Stockholm reaction. These include:

• an extended and emotionally charged environment;
• an adverse environment shared by hostages and hostage-takers (e.g. poor diet and physical discomfort);
• when threats to life are not carried out (e.g. ‘mock executions’);
• when there has to be a marked dependence by the hostages on the hostage-takers for even the most basic needs;
• when there are opportunities for bonding between captives and their captors in circumstances in which the former have not been ‘dehumanized’. (Some hostage-takers aim to dehumanize hostages by hooding them, depriving them of their names, any identifying details and possessions, treating them as ‘animals’ and changing regularly their guards – as did Saddam Hussein with his ‘human shields’ in Kuwait.)

The disadvantages of this reaction are that the hostages after the incident may feel guilty and embarrassed about the way they have reacted. It means that the authorities cannot totally rely on hostages for accurate intelligence or expect them to contribute to any escape plan.

Although PTSD and the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ reaction both reflect the severity of the experience, the former is more related to the level of physical violence displayed towards the hostage, whereas the latter reaction is correlated with the level of humiliation and deprivation. 21 For some individuals it may represent their hope for escape or a way of achieving a psychological separation between their previous ‘normal’ way of life and their new circumstances. The validity of the concept has been challenged by Namnyak et al. , 26 and they suggest that its features lack rigorous empirical evaluation, as well as validated diagnostic criteria, but owes much to the bias of personal and media reporting. Others, for example Cantor and Price, 29 view this concept through the prism of evolutionary theory in a fashion which casts light on this phenomenon as well as on other unequal power relationships, including ‘boy soldiers’ and their leaders, abused children and their parents, and cases of complex PTSD.

Other individual methods of coping with extended captivity include: use of distraction (e.g. mental arithmetic, reading and fantasy); regular discipline (e.g. with regard to personal hygiene and exercise); taking one day at a time; and trying to find something positive in the situation (e.g. Terry Waite 8 began preparing in his mind his autobiography). Jacobsen describes how a group of adolescents, following a skyjacking, viewed their experience initially with a sense of excitement and adventure and were particularly helpful to young mothers with children on the aircraft. 30

Issues which require further research

There are extensive but important gaps in the literature. For example, in relation to attachment theory, it is not clear whether children in particular are affected principally by the emotional stimulation or drive reduction, as the Stockholm Syndrome develops. What underpins this bonding, for different individuals in different crises, has yet to be determined. It is also unclear to what extent the apparent motives of the perpetrators influences the bonding between captor and captive (although it can be difficult to identify the true motives of, for example, terrorists who take hostages). We also need to know more about the interaction between terrorists (who characteristically create a ‘public’ event) and other external agencies, such as the authorities and the media, and the terrorists themselves whose motives, level of determination etc may not be identical. 31 With regard to psychological interventions, particularly in the case of children, we also lack much clarity.

This is a complex and delicate area of research; perpetrators may be inaccessible or unreliable witnesses, and there is the omnipresent risk of re-traumatizing survivors through rehearsal of deeply disturbing experiences. Our current database is however too narrow to fashion a better understanding of such events and how to devise strategies and associated training to deal with them.

This review is inevitably constrained by word length, and it is confined to articles cast in English. It is not able to address the impact of hostage-taking and kidnapping on the families of the victims or on those, such as therapists and police family liaison officers who have to respond to the psychological aftermath of such incidents. This review has however highlighted key issues relating to the motives underlying crimes of this kind and how individuals cope during them and subsequently react. While survivors of such experiences commonly demonstrate remarkable resilience, there is no doubt that those experiences can produce a legacy of chronic emotional disturbance and compromised relationships.

DECLARATIONS —

Competing interests DAA is a part-time police consultant, paid by honorarium to the Robert Gordon University, and an unpaid trainer in hostage negotiation at the Scottish Police College

Funding None

Ethical approval Not applicable

Guarantor DAA

Contributorship Both authors contributed equally with regard to the literature search and the drafting of the article

Acknowledgements

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Abduction of Children by J. Mitchell Miller , Stephanie M. Koskinen LAST REVIEWED: 11 October 2021 LAST MODIFIED: 25 September 2019 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791231-0226

Few crime topics elicit as much fear and concern as child abduction, which is also commonly known as child kidnapping. Child abduction, or kidnapping, is a criminal offense that entails the wrongful taking of a minor by force or violence, manipulation or fraud, or persuasion. There are basically two types of child abduction; familial-parental and the much-exaggerated stranger abductor. Parental abductions are heavily contextualized in child custody and involve far less physical danger to child victims than stranger abductions, which include the majority of violence and sexual violence associated with more extreme abduction events. Despite the popular culture myth of “abduction waves” and pedophiles lurking in the shadows, child abduction is actually a rare phenomenon, as indicated by Shutt, et al. 2004 (cited under Social Constructions ), which likened abduction likelihood to the rarity of a lightning strike. Nonetheless, media hype and sensationalism have framed both popular culture and social-legal constructions of abduction frequency, risk, and offender and victim stereotypes, most notably stranger/pedophile abductors and abduction epidemics. The extant academic literature on child abduction can be observed as a three-pronged typology of 1) historical works, more so accounts of well-known US child kidnappings such as the Lindbergh baby, Adam Walsh, and, more recently, Elizabeth Smart, and international research on abduction for ransom, custody, vice work, and military servitude; 2) legal overviews and opinions, both domestically and internationally, with the latter especially focused on abduction legislation initiatives within Hague Conference; and 3) the focus of this article, empirical scientific works primarily appearing in refereed journal articles. The majority of this literature originates from the behavioral (psychology) and social sciences (criminology and criminal justice, sociology, and political science) and, to a lesser degree, from professional school orientations (social work, nursing, and public health). As a rare event and relatively myopic, though seriously consequential, phenomenon, there isn’t a discernable number of reference works, anthologies, or established published bibliographies informing the child abduction knowledge base. Fortunately, there is a sizeable body of empirical works on child abduction to characterize the nature of the offense, its perpetrator and victim participants, and responses by juvenile and criminal justice as well as other stakeholder agencies. While substantial research attention has addressed child abduction in Africa, Latin America, and parts of Europe, this coverage is based on American research over the last few decades. This empirical literature on child abduction is presented in annotated form as a thematic taxonomy comprised of the following: 1) General Overviews , 2) Offense, Offender, and Victim Characteristics , 3) Familial Abduction , 4) Stranger Abduction , 5) Awareness and Prevention , 6) AMBER Alert and Other Official Responses , and 7) Social Constructions .

Research on child abduction in Boudreaux, et al. 2000 and more recently Walsh, et al. 2016 provides general overviews of the phenomenon. Palmer and Noble 1984 places selective emphasis on incidence rates, motivations, abduction typologies, and historical perspectives, while Heide, et al. 2009 synthesizes the literature on sexually motivated events. These refereed journal articles collectively constitute an empirical overview of child abduction that is enriched by an Oxford University Press book, Fass 1997 , and a technical report, Finkelhor, et al. 1990 , which detail and contextualize the general nature of abduction events.

Boudreaux, M. C., W. D. Lord, and S. E. Etter. “Child Abduction: An Overview of Current and Historical Perspectives.” Child Maltreatment 5.1 (2000): 63–71.

This journal article provides a comprehensive review of empirical literature on child abduction extant at the turn of the 20th century. Major themes include incidence rates, dichotomous operational definition of child abduction (legal/social), victim and offender characteristics, and a motivational typology (maternal longing, sex, retribution, profit, and homicidal intent). Risk factors, victim selection, and evidence-based responses such as child safety training programs and improved investigative practices are also summarized.

Fass, P. S. Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America . New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

This book presents a chronological unfolding of child abduction in the United States. Moving through famous kidnapping cases in American history, from the Ross case (“the crime of the century”) to the Vanderbilt custody abduction and the Lindbergh kidnapping, child abduction is characterized as a rare event exaggerated by the press. Fass presents narrative insight into family life, parenting, and media coverage.

Finkelhor, D., A. Sedlak, and G. T. Hotaling. Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children in America: First Report, Numbers and Characteristics National Incidence Studies: Executive Summary. Darby, PA: Diane, 1990.

This report provides a typology of missing and abducted children based on FBI case data. The authors present national estimates in nonfamily and family abduction categories including missing children data on cases where the children have run away or have otherwise gone missing without implication of any crime. The authors urge special attention to and policy focus on high-risk children, who are most likely to be victimized or become perpetrators of crime.

Heide, K. M., E. Beauregard, and W. C. Myers. “Sexually Motivated Child Abduction Murders: Synthesis of the Literature and Case Illustration.” Victims and Offenders 4.1 (2009): 58–75.

This analysis of sexual murders that involve children focuses on offenders who abduct their victims. Offender characteristics are studied, touching on trauma at birth, behavioral issues in childhood, and emotional and physical abuse. The authors suggest that a delay or cessation in personality development may be the root cause for offenders’ actions.

Palmer, C. E., and D. N. Noble. “Child Snatching: Motivations, Mechanisms, and Melodrama.” Journal of Family Issues 5.1 (1984): 27–46.

This article features data from a variety of offender and criminal justice professional interviews. The authors dichotomize motivations for “child snatching” between concern for the child and satisfaction of personal needs. Common factors among child abduction cases are analyzed, such as motivations, planning, hostility, trauma, familial involvement, and agency involvement. The authors recommend extended study of child snatchers and increased involvement by law enforcement.

Walsh, J. A., J. L. Krienert, and C. L. Comens. “Examining 19 Years of Officially Reported Child Abduction Incidents (1995–2013): Employing a Four Category Typology of Abduction.” Criminal Justice Studies 29.1 (2016): 21–39.

This journal article uses NIBRS data to identify child abduction characteristics. Findings suggest that media sensationalism is the cause of misconceptions and an overemphasis on stranger abduction, which are rare in comparison to acquaintance or family abductions.

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Exemplification of child abduction in US news media: Testing media effects on parental perceptions and assessment of risk

Exemplification of Child Abduction in US media

• Published: 04 November 2022
• Volume 20 , pages 297–316, ( 2024 )

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• Jane Long Weatherred   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9133-0563 1 &
• Leigh Moscowitz 2  

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The objective of this study is to advance the literature on exemplification theory and how media coverage can impact public perceptions of crime. This 3-condition, between-subjects experimental design tests whether specific child abduction news stories influenced parental concerns, in particular their estimation of the likelihood of the crime as a threat in their own communities and for their own families. This study finds that there are no significant direct effects of being exposed to news stories about child abduction on the perception that the problem will get worse; however, this effect is mediated by the perception of child abduction as a threat in one’s own community. The level of proximity may explain why parents exposed to the extreme news exemplar perceive child abductions to be a problem in their own community, but not necessarily perceive the crime as a personal threat likely to happen to one’s own child or family. Theoretical and practical implications about news coverage and its impact on public perceptions of crime are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This manuscript is the product of a graduate-level experimental design course taught by Dr. Robert M. McKeever, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina.

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Weatherred’s research examines health communication, specifically, news portrayals of child abuse and its impact on public policy. She has published in the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse and received grant funding to develop two psychometric measurements regarding child sexual abuse.

Moscowitz’s research examines the cultural production of news and the politics of media representation. She is the author of three books, “The Battle over Marriage: Gay Rights Activism through the Media” (University of Illinois Press, 2013); “Snatched: Coverage of Child Abductions in U.S. News Media” (Peter Lang Publishing, 2015) and Media and the Coming Out of Gay Male Athletes in American Team Sports (Peter Lang Publishing, 2018).

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Weatherred, J.L., Moscowitz, L. Exemplification of child abduction in US news media: Testing media effects on parental perceptions and assessment of risk. J Exp Criminol 20 , 297–316 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-022-09535-9

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The National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children  classified kidnappings as either family or non-family abductions.

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Family abduction  was defined as the taking or keeping of a child by a family member in violation of a custody order, decree, or other legitimate custodial rights, where the taking or keeping involved some element of concealment, flight, or intent to deprive a lawful custodian indefinitely of custodial privileges.

Non-family abduction  was subdivided into "stereotypical kidnappings" which fit the public stereotype of the crime, and legal definition abductions, which are generally short-term forced movement or detention of children to facilitate another crime such as robbery or sexual assault..

• in 2011, there were an estimated 105 child victims of "stereotypical kidnappings," defined as abductions perpetrated by a stranger or slight acquaintance and involving a child who was transported more than 50 miles and detained overnight, held for ransom or with the intent to keep the child permanently, or killed. 
•  Victims of stereotypical kidnappings were, most commonly, ages 12 to 17, girls, white, and living in situations other than with two biological or adoptive parents. Half of all stereotypical kidnappings in 2011 were sexually motivated crimes against adolescent girls.
• In 1999, there were an estimated 203,900 child victims of family abductions, of which 43% were not considered missing by their caretaker because they knew their child's whereabouts or were not concerned by the circumstances.

Sources: Wolak, J., Finkelhor, D., & Sedlak, A. J. (2016).  Child victims of stereotypical kidnappings known to law enforcement in 2011 . Retrieved from OJJDP Juvenile Justice Bulletin - NCJ 249249 (pgs. 1-20). Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office (CV343)

Heather Hammer, David Finkelhor & Andrea J. Sedlak (2002).  Children Abducted by Family Members: National Estimates and Characteristics . Juvenile Justice Bulletin–NCJ196466, 1-12. (MC17)

Missing Children

 While the term "missing children" may seem clear, a close examination of the issue would reveal a spectrum of circumstances ranging from a misunderstanding about schedules to running away or being the victim of an abduction. Through the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART) and its follow-up, NISMART-2, CCRC researchers sought to create a unified estimate of the number and type of missing children. To accomplish this, NISMART-2 defined missing children as either caretaker missing - when a child is missing from their caretaker - or reported missing - when a child is missing from their caretaker and is reported missing to an agency for help locating them.

Sources:  Highlights from the NISMART Bulletins . Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (2002). Juvenile Justice Fact Sheet, Washington, DC.

Andrea J. Sedlak, David Finkelhor, Heather Hammer and Dana J. Schultz (2002).  National Estimates of Missing Children: An Overview . Juvenile Justice Bulletin–NCJ196465,1-12. (MC16)

• The total number of children who were missing from their caretakers in 1999 (i.e., their caretakers did not know their wherabouts and were alarmed for at least an hour while trying to locate them) is estimated to be 1,315,600.
• The number of missing children who were reported missing (i.e., reported to the police or a missing children's agency in order to locate them) was estimated to be 797,500, which is equivalent to a rate of 11.4 children per 1,000 in the U.S. population.
• Nearly all of the caretaker missing children (non-reported) (99.8%) were returned home alive or located by the time the study data were collected.

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Contemporary Issues Relating to International Child Abduction in Contemplation of the Eighth Special Commission into the Operation of the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention (2023)

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A special issue of Laws (ISSN 2075-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (23 June 2023) | Viewed by 21431

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Dear Colleagues,

In October 2023, the 8 th Special Commission into the operation of the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (hereafter the Convention) as well as the 1996 Convention will be held in The Hague. With the Convention having reached the milestone of its 40 th anniversary in 2020, we have reached a time when the circumstances surrounding abduction are different in many ways from those which were common when the Convention was promulgated. For example, the profile of abduction has changed, as has the way that parents divide childcare responsibilities between them, and the growth in shared parenting. In addition, our understanding of, and attitude towards, childhood and children’s rights has altered considerably since 1980, and it is critical to ensure this is reflected in contemporary thinking. It is therefore timely to take stock of where we are in relation to the implementation of the Convention. This Special Issue provides an opportunity for consideration of some of the key issues now being discussed and litigated by practitioners, courts, scholars, and commentators alike in relation to the Convention. Some are gaining additional prominence in the international family justice field because of the current global challenges and displacement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, warfare, and family breakdown.  In particular, the interrelationship between the Convention and other conventions and regional frameworks has never been more important in regard to how they impact the Convention’s operation. For example, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 has promoted the right of the child to participate in ways not contemplated when the earlier 1980 Hague Convention was being developed and took effect. We welcome contributions on these cutting-edge issues some of which are anticipated to feature in the deliberations at the 8 th Special Commission.

This Special Issue aims to contribute to the knowledge base on the Convention and, by being published in advance of the 8 th Special Commission, to assist in the discussions relating to its possible growth and improvement. It is hoped that this will help enable the Convention to continue successfully achieving its aim of preventing harm to children arising from their abduction. In this way, this Special Issue will support the ambitions of Laws to examine critical developments in the substance and process of legal systems around the world, bridge traditional boundaries, and challenge the injustices inherent in the law.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following in the context of the 1980 Hague Convention:

• The child’s right to participate / Hearing the child
• Domestic violence
• Habitual residence
• Continuing contact and access
• Article 13 and the use of ameliorative measures, e.g., the recent US Supreme Court decision of Golan v Saada [2022]
• Interaction of the Convention with other international conventions, e.g., the UNCRC 1989, Refugees Convention 1951, etc.
• Interaction of the Convention with other regional frameworks, e.g., European Convention on Human Rights, Brussels Regulations, etc.
• Non-Convention states and international child abduction
• Aftercare/ Therapeutic approaches to international child abduction
• Future growth and development of the Convention

We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

Prof. Dr. Marilyn Freeman Prof. Dr. Nicola Taylor Guest Editors

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website . Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form . Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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The Hague Child Abduction Convention's Grave Risk of Harm Exception: The Assessment of the Child's Best Interest Assessment

2019, Book of abstracts of the 7th Children’s Rights Research Symposium Children’s Rights Research: Pushing the Boundaries

The Child Abduction Convention has the objective to secure the prompt return of the child, which was unilaterally removed across the border by one parent, back into his or her habitual environment. This mechanism corresponds to a specific idea of what constitutes the best interests of the child. The abducted child should be returned promptly to his or her country of origin, where the courts are best positioned to determine the child’s best interest and issue a judgement on the substance of the dispute. The removal of the child can sometimes be justified by objective reasons related to its person or to the environment. The authorities deciding upon the return request have the possibility to question the return when there is a grave risk that his or her return would expose the child to physical or psychological harm or otherwise place the child in an intolerable situation. This puts the courts in unenviable position where they need to find a balance between the interest of the child in general not to be wrongfully taken from his or her place of habitual residence and the need to protect individual child.

Related Papers

Tonyae Stacy

Michigan journal of international law

eran sthoeger

Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law

Katarina Trimmings

The 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction seeks inter alia to protect children internationally from the harmful effects of parental child abductions and ‘to es...

Prawo w Działaniu

Katarzyna Zombory

The 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction was the first binding international instrument to address the phenomenon of cross-border child abduction, which appeared as a side-effect of ongoing globalisation in the second half of the 20th century. The 1980 Hague Convention is undoubtedly the most successful and widespread instrument of direct cross-border cooperation between states to deal with the international child abduction. Nonetheless, the practical significance of this 40-year-old instrument is diminished by the fact that it allows only for a limited consideration of the specific situation of an individual child, whose careful consideration the present-day children’s rights approach, in particular the principle of the best interest of the child, otherwise dictates. International family mediation, carried out by a qualified cross-border family mediator, can nevertheless address some of the major downsides of the mandatory return mechanism. Th...

Ruth Lamont

Netherlands International Law Review

hans van Loon

Claire Fenton-Glynn

Journal of the Institute of Criminological and Sociological Research

Ana Batrićević

As a complex and expanding global problem, international child abduction causes many legal consequences. Although the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child abduction, adopted in 1980, sets the grounds for cooperation of relevant state authorities in order to provide prompt return of the abducted child to the state of his or her habitual residence and protect his or her best interests, numerous other issues such as criminal liability of parents, protection of child's rights and protection of right to family life, arise therein. The authors of this paper highlight different etiological and legal aspects of international child abduction and discuss the link between this phenomenon and other similar offences such as: abduction, human trafficking, trafficking in minors for adoption and domestic violence with special focus on Serbian legislation. The authors also point out the most disputable issues regarding international child abduction in the practice of European Court of Human Rights and key dilemmas in practical implementation of national and international frameworks for its prevention. Key words: international child abduction, case law, European Court of Human Rights, Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child abduction, return of children

Nuria Gonzalez Martin

HUMANIDADES E TECNOLOGIA(FINOM)

Margareth Vetis Zaganelli

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