# Risk of adult woman being abducted **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 4, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888 "2009-09-04T18:05:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/1 "2009-09-04T18:05:56Z")
I had a conversation at lunch today in which a co-worker commented on how dangerous the world is today, saying that she is nervous about traveling long distances alone and always worries about her grown daughers traveling by themselves. I said that the odds of being an adult woman being abducted are probably less than being struck by lightning, but she watches a lot of TV (Greta van Susteren?) and says that abductions are a lot more frequent than I would think. I tried googling for stats, but came up dry. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/2 "2009-09-04T18:10:52Z")
I took upon myself the mammoth task of googling “kidnapping” and came up with… > [@](#): > > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping#Kidnapping\_in\_the\_United\_States](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping#Kidnapping_in_the_United_States) > > The National Crime Information Center maintains a roster of missing persons, and groups them into categories. In 2008, there were 778,161 missing person reports logged on their system, of which 745,088 were eventually removed. Of those reported missing, 87,497 were listed as being in physical danger, and 20,562 were listed as being missing involuntarily. > > Of the 589,761 juveniles reported missing in 2008, 13,046 were considered to have been in physical danger. Of those, 6,094 were considered to be missing involuntarily. Although the FBI does not maintain official statistics of the crime of kidnapping, presumably those known or suspected to have been kidnapped would fall under the “involuntary” category. > > As the United States is estimated to have a population of about 304 million people[3], if 20,561 persons were reported kidnapped in 2008, it would amount to a kidnapping rate of 6.7 per 100,000 persons; as the United States is estimated to have a population of about 74 million persons under age 18[4], it would amount to a kidnapping rate among persons under 18 of 8.2 per 100,000. > > According to the National Crime Information Center: > > As of December 20, 2007, there were 7,105,229 active missing person records in NCIC. Juveniles under the age of 18 accounted for 54,648 (51.93%) of the records, and 12,362 (11.75%) were for juveniles between the ages of 18 and 20. During 2007, 814,967 missing person records were entered into the 836,131 records entered in 2006. Missing person records cleared or cancelled during the same period totaled 820,212. Reasons for these removals include: the subject was located by a law enforcement agency; the individual returned home; or the record had to be removed by the entering agency due to a determination that the record was invalid. In 2007, there were 518 records entered as Abducted by a Stranger; 299,787 entered as Runaway; and 2,919 entered as Abducted by Non-Custodial Parent. This only accounts for 303,224 entries of the 418,967 entered, or 72.4%, which is an increase from 297,632 entries of the 836,131 entered, or 35.6%, in 2006. The Missing Person Circumstances field is optional and has been available since July 1999 when the NCIC 2000 came on-line. This is not an accurate reflection of the actual circumstances of all the entries. > > It should be noted that the 814,967 figure merely represents the number of missing persons reported, regardless of whether they were later confirmed to have been kidnapped or abducted. Not sure if that answers your question… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/3 "2009-09-04T18:13:06Z")
Just for comparison the [odds of being struck by lightning](http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/understanding/lightning_strike.shtml) are about 1 in 3 million, so unfortunately it seems like there’s a much higher chance of being abducted. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/4 "2009-09-04T18:17:25Z")
Also, just to point out, being worried about your daughters traveling alone wouldn’t just be fear of abduction, it would be of any of the other horrible things that could happen as well: rape and sexual assault wouldn’t be counted in those abduction figures for instance, and sadly they’re probably both a lot more likely to happen. I don’t think it’s particularly unreasonable for a woman to worry about traveling long distances alone - certainly if it involved traveling at night or abroad anyway. ---
**Author:** ![maladroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@maladroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maladroit)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/5 "2009-09-04T18:29:14Z")
I’ve always been under the impression that the biggest danger to women of reproductive age is their men, rather than random strangers. Not suggesting solo midnight strolls down dark alleys, and I always look around me in parking lots and have my car keys in hand. I’ll go look for some statistics now. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/6 "2009-09-04T18:37:12Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](#): > > I took upon myself the mammoth task of googling “kidnapping” and came up with… > > Not sure if that answers your question… Not really, although it gives some rough leads. I’m looking for the number of adults kidnapped by strangers. You can’t quite get that from that page, but if 518 people were abducted by strangers in 2007, that’s a rate of about 1 in 580,000 for the entire population. The adult population is almost 200 million, so if a little over half are women, and _all_ of the victims of abduction by strangers are adult women, that gives a rate of about 1 in 200,000. The problem is that I imagine the total number of stranger abductions is higher (since people will go missing under unknown circumstances), but only a small percentage of those will be adults. > [@The Great Philosopher](#): > > Just for comparison the odds of being struck by lightning are about 1 in 3 million, so unfortunately it seems like there’s a much higher chance of being abducted. According to [The National Weather Service](http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/medical.htm), the odds are about 1/500,000 per year. And 1/5000 over a lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/7 "2009-09-04T18:41:35Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](#): > > Also, just to point out, being worried about your daughters traveling alone wouldn’t just be fear of abduction, it would be of any of the other horrible things that could happen as well: rape and sexual assault wouldn’t be counted in those abduction figures for instance, and sadly they’re probably both a lot more likely to happen. My thoughts exactly when reading the OP: who said anything about being “abducted”? She doesn’t want to get _raped_. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/8 "2009-09-04T19:01:11Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](#): > > Also, just to point out, being worried about your daughters traveling alone wouldn’t just be fear of abduction, it would be of any of the other horrible things that could happen as well: rape and sexual assault wouldn’t be counted in those abduction figures for instance, and sadly they’re probably both a lot more likely to happen. I don’t think it’s particularly unreasonable for a woman to worry about traveling long distances alone - certainly if it involved traveling at night or abroad anyway. True, but she was especially afraid of being abducted while driving in her car between towns. If you have stats on the number of violent crimes per mile traveled, that would be great! I wanted to focus on what seemed to be her greatest fear first (and what I specifically claimed was less likely than being struck by lightening) but I think all of her fears are overblown. Not that rape isn’t something to be scared of, but as **maladroit** pointed out, the real danger is from family and aquaintences, not people in dark alleys or lonely roads. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/9 "2009-09-04T19:11:27Z")
Well, define “traveling”. There are definitely parts of Central and South America where abduction by strangers is a much, much bigger concern than it is in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/10 "2009-09-04T19:13:04Z")
Just to clarify the backstory a little bit, the conversation started off talking about a movie in which someone was kidnapped by cannibals after making a wrong turn. I think the movie was called ["Kidnapped by Cannibals](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295700/)." 😉 My co-worker opined that while they might not be cannibals, there were people out there who might kidnap you if you took a wrong turn, and she was scared of them. When I said those fears are more creatures of the media than realistic dangers to worry about, she and another woman brought up things like car-jackings and blue-light rapists, but I mostly wanted to counter her fear of [del]cannibals[/del] kidnappers. ETA - That’s a good point, **Zsofia** , but I’m just interested in US statistics. I don’t even want to know what horrors my co-worker thinks might lurk beyond our borders! ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/11 "2009-09-04T19:37:28Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > Just to clarify the backstory a little bit, the conversation started off talking about a movie in which someone was kidnapped by cannibals after making a wrong turn. I think the movie was called ["Kidnapped by Cannibals](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295700/)." 😉 My co-worker opined that while they might not be cannibals, there were people out there who might kidnap you if you took a wrong turn, and she was scared of them. When I said those fears are more creatures of the media than realistic dangers to worry about, she and another woman brought up things like car-jackings and blue-light rapists, but I mostly wanted to counter her fear of [del]cannibals[/del] kidnappers. The key point is violence from STRANGERS is vanishingly rare. The chances of randomly taking a wrong turn and ending up kidnapped/murdered/eaten is orders of magnitude lower than the total rate of kidnapping/murder/canaballism in the country as a whole. So while the chance of an adult getting kidnapped is not lower than that chance of getting struck by lightning, the chances of getting randomly kidnapped by someone you never met before probably is. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/12 "2009-09-04T19:42:20Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > True, but she was especially afraid of being abducted while driving in her car between towns. If you have stats on the number of violent crimes per mile traveled, that would be great! I wanted to focus on what seemed to be her greatest fear first (and what I specifically claimed was less likely than being struck by lightening) but I think all of her fears are overblown. In 1990 a 21 year old student named Linda Shaw went missing as she drove from her family home in Brampton, Ontario to the University of Western Ontario (barely a two hour drive). I think she was returning to school after the Easter vacation, driving alone at night. DNA evidence confirmed the identity of her killer almost 15 years later. It was considered a _huge big deal_ because such a random crime (and therefore exceptionally difficult to solve) was so highly unusual. Most disappearances are not “total stranger” type of abductions. It got tons of media attention because it was so remarkably rare and was a “worst nightmare” scenario for so many people. But your co-worker needs some common sense. Evil predators/serial killers/cannibals are not going to wait for the one-in-a-million chance that someone out of pure happenstance will make a wrong turn, AND will be alone, AND will be relatively helpless, AND will have a breakdown, etc. Tell your co-worker the cannibals are far more likely to stalk her for awhile, get used to her daily routine, and then strike when they know she is most vulnerable. ETA: Could someone pass the ketchup? ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/13 "2009-09-04T20:35:27Z")
> [@maladroit](#): > > I’ve always been under the impression that the biggest danger to women of reproductive age is their men, rather than random strangers. Not suggesting solo midnight strolls down dark alleys, and I always look around me in parking lots and have my car keys in hand. I’ll go look for some statistics now. True, but most women live their lives in a way to limit their vulnerability to attacks from strangers. It doesn’t mean those attacks wouldn’t happen if women were less careful. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/14 "2009-09-05T03:52:41Z")
> [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](#): > > True, but most women live their lives in a way to limit their vulnerability to attacks from strangers. It doesn’t mean those attacks wouldn’t happen if women were less careful. No, but even so, nearly all attacks on a person will come from someone they know. In general, the three precursors to a person committing a crime are: Stress - Losing a job, being dumped, death in the family, needing money, etc. Interest - As in, in a particular individual, type of person, political thought, or business Opportunity - As it says Items #2 and #3 describe why it’s generally true that a person is attacked or kidnapped by someone they know. He will either be specifically interested in you, or know you well enough to be able to spot an opportunity. If a woman truly wanted to be safe, her best bet would be to avoid men who have become stressed in their life. This is when we are most likely to react irrationally. (The same holds true for women as well, of course, but statistically speaking it’s principally men who act out in such cases.) ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/15 "2009-09-05T06:03:24Z")
As a woman who travels regularly alone at home and abroad, with the attitude of “If they rape me, they rape me, but hell if I’m going to live a half-lived life because of a bunch of asshole rapists”, I too would be interested in some statistics. It seems to me that a lot of women convince themselves to miss a lot of life because of irrational fears. It seems to me, from the statistics, you are far more likely to end up dead/raped/missing hanging out at home with your boyfriend than going on a nice trip taking basic safety precautions. Can any of you number crunchers confirm this? ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/16 "2009-09-05T11:46:21Z")
The website of the [National Center for Missing and Exploited Children](http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2816) gives this (from several years ago, apparently out of a total of over 70 million children): > [@](#): > > 115 children were the victims of “stereotypical” kidnapping. These crimes involve someone the child does not know, or knows only slightly, who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently. It’s not clear how this relates to the abduction of non-juveniles. But I think it suggests this is much rarer than it is often thought to be. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/17 "2009-09-05T15:03:34Z")
According to statistics I read just recently, the number of children kidnapped by strangers each year in the U.S. is somewhere are 110. In comparison, about 75 people are killed by lightning each year (and about 600 are struck by lightning). I don’t know what the number of adult women kidnapped each year is, but I suspect it’s considerably less than the number of children kidnapped by strangers. Kidnapping an adult is harder than kidnapping a child. I suspect that most of the adults that are kidnapped are for ransom. I therefore suspect that the number of women abducted each year is less than the number killed by lightning. Of course, this isn’t all the ways that women can be hurt. They could be raped or killed or assaulted. I don’t understand what that has to do with long-distance travelling in any case. If you’re going to be kidnapped or raped or killed or assaulted, that could happen near home just as easy as far away from home. If someone wants to be safe, they shouldn’t go to dangerous places. A dangerous place could be a nearby park that isn’t safe at night. It could be home, when a women’s husband is obviously violent and angry. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/18 "2009-09-05T15:14:24Z")
I would like to see a breakdown in the numbers of unarmed women who are abducted, versus: the number of women who have a license for concealed carry, or otherwise carry a handgun who were abducted. Its my understanding that armed women are rarely abducted, if at all. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/19 "2009-09-05T15:28:25Z")
It’s probably impossible to tell. As I said, the number of adult American women abducted each year is probably pretty small, well under 100. Not very many people are carrying handguns at any point, so not very many of that small amount of abducted women are carrying handguns. That’s too small a sample to draw any deduction from. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888/20 "2009-09-05T15:48:58Z")
FBI statistics from here: [http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/08aprelim/downloads.htm](http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/08aprelim/downloads.htm) Forcible rape average for all cities listed in table 4: 112 per 100,000 You’ll note that the Wikipedia gives a lower number (~32 per 100,000). This may be because they are getting their data from a different source, or more likely because it includes rural areas, not just cities. For someone living in a city, the 112 figure will probably be more accurate. 73% of women who are raped, know their attacker ([according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics](http://books.google.com/books?id=Cif310DjeK4C&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=rape+statistics+knows+her+attacker&source=bl&ots=lAw0tRyxB_&sig=C_xRuGFbbV9ru5cl4X1JOVy7VNc&hl=en&ei=sYWiSunOBYPAsQPXqImNDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#v=onepage&q=rape%20statistics%20knows%20her%20attacker&f=false)). As is everyone else, I’m having the darnedest time finding statistics on non-child abductions. This probably gives a better indication than anything of the frequency of it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/risk-of-adult-woman-being-abducted/508888.md?page=2)