What is the current rate of non-parental (non-familial) child
abduction in the U.S. and how has it increased or decreased over the
past century? Has the co-incidence of child abduction and sex crimes
increased or decreased over the past century?

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Clarification of Question by bookgnut-ga on 29 Jul 2002 06:16 PDT

I should clarify -- I have a couple of current statistics, the most
useful being that around 1997 there were approximately 100 child
abduction murders by strangers occuring yearly:

http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20001001killings3.asp

Although we obviously have a different law enforcement take on this
now (a little more aware of it with better stats) what I want is the
closest statistic for comparison I can get as far back as it is
available. That's the admittedly difficult part.

If the stat is only available in some weird form (child abductions
reported in the press in 1940 vs. 1990) that might suffice. Holy grail
would be the exact stat from 1900, but not holding breath . . .

That's an interesting question on an ugly subject. It would be very
difficult to track as original research, although it is possible that
somebody else has already tried to analyze the data and that a Google
researcher will be able to find a resulting report.

As I understand it, stranger kidnapping is a relatively rare
phenomenon - the last statistic I heard was @50 cases per year,
nationwide. Technically speaking, at least by common law definitions,
a person is kidnapped when they are taken to a location against their
will and held there - so applying the definition in its broadest sense
would be unhelpful. (Holding somebody up at gunpoint and taking their
money is robbery. Holding somebody up at gunpoint, but making them
step from the sidewalk into an alley before taking their money, by
common law definition is technically both robbery and kidnapping. The
same is true for a sex crime that involves moving the victim to
another room or location, even if the victim is not detained following
the crime.) The "50 case" figure obviously uses a much narrower
definition of kidnapping. It is possible that it also does not include
cases where the victim was kidnapped and murdered, as opposed to being
kidnapped and held in captivity, as sometimes crime statistics reflect
only the most serious crime committed.

The manner in which kidnapping was treated by law enforcement changed
dramatically in the U.S. following the 1932 Lindbergh kidnapping case.
(If you are not familiar with the case, in which the infant son of
famed aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped and killed, see
http://www.lindberghtrial.com/ .) Statistics about kidnapping, and
particularly stranger kidnapping, likely improved significantly
following that case, due to the significantly increased involvement of
the federal government and FBI in kidnapping cases, increased public
attention, and the significantly increased penalties applied to
kidnappers. It would be interesting to see statistics on "kidnapping
for ransom" following that case - to see if, despite the increased
penalty, the attendant publicity inspired increased numbers of
criminals to try to hold the children of wealthy parents for ransom,
or if there was an observable deterrent effect.

A related question:

My local news channel led tonight' broadcast with 3 consecutive
missing-children stories. Curious...has there been a sudden rash of
kidnappings, or are these Amber Alerts just giving them much more
media attention? Maybe it's a good idea and can help locate the
missing...but I get the feeling that someone wants us to think there's
been a dramatic increase. The answer to our fears has just become
available and heavily promoted: an implanted microchip. Scary.