NCJ Number
152230
Date Published
1993
Length
39 pages
Annotation
In 1990, the National Incidence Study of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children (NISMART) study recommended that different estimates should be developed for the separate crimes of stereotypical kidnapping of children and incidents involving children which fall under the legal definition of abduction.
Abstract
These estimates were of different orders of magnitude, with the legal definition abductions seemingly correlated to sexual assault figures. This study undertook additional analyses to test the validity of this approach by examining 1,259 records from 21 county abduction, missing persons, and homicide files, and 1,556 records from four county sexual offenses files. The results show that 396 of these cases, which occurred between August 1987 and July 1988, satisfied criteria for legal definition nonfamily abductions of children, while 32 could be classified as stereotypical kidnappings. The findings underscore the importance of subdividing the problem of nonfamily abduction and confirm the decision to define kidnapping as involving stranger perpetrators only. The analyses also emphasized the connection between legal-definition abduction and sexual abuse of children. 8 tables, 2 figures, and 7 notes