NCJ Number
173707
Date Published
1994
Length
48 pages
Annotation
A nationally representative sample of 2,000 youths ages 10- 16 participated in a telephone survey in which they were asked this question: "Has anybody ever tried to kidnap you or tried to get you to get into their car when you thought you might be taken somewhere and hurt?"
Abstract
A total of 6.1 percent of the sample reported that they had experienced such an incident at some point in their lives, 2.2 percent in the last year. All of the previous year's incidents and all but 4 (0.1 percent) of the lifetime incidents were unsuccessful attempts in which the child was not taken anywhere. The perpetrators were nearly all adult male strangers, typically alone and between the ages of 26 and 40. Few victims were threatened with bodily harm, and even fewer were actually injured; however, 57 percent said they had been afraid of either being injured or killed. Nearly all the children (87 percent) told someone, usually their parents, about what happened, but police were contacted in fewer than one in five cases; a perpetrator was apprehended in only 7 percent of the cases. Girls had approximately double the rate of boys for these types of incidents, and older teens had substantially more episodes than younger children. Also at higher risk were minority children from lower socioeconomic, high-crime, urban environments living in households without their two biological parents and who were undergoing change or stress or experiencing elevated levels of family conflict and school difficulties. Children who had experienced such episodes in the past evidenced substantial levels of current psychological distress, particularly among the females. This report recommends ways to improve the research in this area. 6 tables