Despite their desire to immediately meet their own sexual needs, only three perpetrators in this sample engaged in sexual activity—mostly fondling—with the victim while still inside the residence. They may have preferred waiting for sexual activity until after taking the victim from the home, especially if the offenders perceived that a secondary location allowed for more control.

Notably, some perpetrators attempted to engage adult sexual partners just prior to the child abduction, but could not make contact with or were rebuffed by the individual. In a few of these instances, the offender made contact in a similar manner as the kidnapping—approaching a sleeping person at night for sexual purposes by either unlawfully entering the home or knocking on a door or window.7

Female offenders with maternal motivations took the two youngest victims—both less than 1 year old—and intended on claiming them as their own children. Other dynamics in these cases differed from most of the study’s findings. The two incidents occurred during the daytime, and the perpetrators entered the homes overtly using a ruse that required interaction with an adult (the victims’ mother). In addition, these offenders had little to no familiarity with the childrens’ residence prior to the abduction, but instead identified the victims by conducting surveillance outside the home.

The offender motivated by revenge killed two children (1 and 10 years old), as well as their mother, in the same crime. This incident occurred during the daytime, the perpetrator entered the home overtly with force (a firearm), and the adult female was the apparent primary target.

In the cases involving maternal desire or revenge, perpetrators either severely injured or killed other individuals in the home, but left them within the residence. After incapacitating the adults, offenders then removed the child victims from the home.

The sexually motivated cases all involved male offenders abducting primarily female school-aged children for sexual gratification during the overnight or early morning hours.

Victims

Victims averaged 9 years old; 41 percent were between 6 and 11. Most were Caucasian (84 percent) and female (88 percent). Approximately 63 percent were killed by the offender, with only around 38 percent recovered alive. The most common causes of death included asphyxiation (45 percent) and blunt-force injury (30 percent).

Fifty-nine percent of the victims knew the offender before the crime. Additionally, of those who had previous contact with the perpetrator, 63 percent had such a connection within 1 week of the abduction, which indicates a narrow timeframe within which investigators potentially can identify suspects.

Further, over half of the offenders knew the residence. Some had been inside the home or previously stayed or lived there. This allowed many of the perpetrators to understand the general layout, as well as the occupants and their activities.

For many victims, there was a history of others living or staying for short periods of time at the residence. Often, the homes were left unsecure. The transient environments created their own investigative challenges, including identifying and interviewing individuals with access and learning the routines and behaviors of persons in the household.

Most offenders, whether previously known or unknown to the victim’s family, had been in the general area of the home, often for legitimate purposes, prior to the abduction. Due to the frequency of familiarity with the victim, family, and residence, in over half of the cases, the offender’s name came from interviews with the victim or relatives at the home.

Police officers identified 59 percent of the suspects within 1 week of the crime. This finding mirrors the results of a previous study in which police knew the offender’s name within the first week of the investigation in over half of missing children homicide cases.8 Such study results reinforce the idea that a comprehensive investigation into the child and the family, known as victimology, should be conducted as soon as possible.

