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Important Statistics | IL Law Involving Child Abduction

• Cases of Juvenile Abductions (1990):

  Family Abductions	354,100
  Non-Family Abductions	3,200 - 4,600
  Attempted Non-Family Abductions	114,600
  Runaways	457,000
  Thrownaways	127,100
  Lost, Injured, or Otherwise Missing (juvenile defined as under age seventeen)	438,200

  
  

• “In approximately 725,000 cases (or on average 2,000 per day) the disappearance of a child was serious enough that a parent called law enforcement and the law enforcement agency took a report and entered it into NCIC.”

• Approximately 100 abducted children are found deceased each year.

• 74% of abducted children who are murdered are dead within three hours of the abduction

• Most non-family abductions are short-term and sexually motivated:

  -About 200-300, or 6%, of these cases make up the most serious cases when a Child was murdered, ransomed, or taken with the intent to keep

  
  

• Family Abductions:
  

  -63,200 cases involved concealment, transportation out of state, or intent to keep the child permanently (policy focal)

  -56,000 cases the child experienced serious mental harm

  -14,000 cases the child experienced serious physical harm

  -14,000 cases the child experienced physical abuse

  -3,500 cases the child experienced sexual abuse

  Source: www.missingkids.com

• Cases of family abductions in 1999: 203,900

  98% of these children were returned home, none of them were killed

  
  

  Source: www.ed.gov

• “A study of children in kindergarten through second grade, who participated in a prevention program, found that the children would tell a responsible adult if they were victimized, both when forced and told by the offender to keep the encounter asecret.”

  Source: children Today, Volume 18.