# "The most frequently kidnapped category of people is adult males" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 2, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frequently-kidnapped-category-of-people-is-adult-males/790380 "2017-07-02T18:16:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frequently-kidnapped-category-of-people-is-adult-males/790380/1 "2017-07-02T18:16:48Z")
…So my mom used to tell me, with alarm, on more than one occasion, while I was growing up. (I’m a man.) If this true? I cannot tell if she was referring to statistics for the USA alone, or the whole world. I suspect that this statistic was arrived at by including figures such as gangs kidnapping rival gang members, or men who have traveled to some place voluntarily but then are held against their will by paramilitary forces or whatnot. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frequently-kidnapped-category-of-people-is-adult-males/790380/2 "2017-07-02T18:24:27Z")
I don’t know about kidnappings, which seem pretty rare these days, but young white men are by far and away the most likely to get mugged. > [@](#): > > If you are aged between 16 and 24, you are six times more likely to be mugged and students are five times more likely to be robbed than employed people. > [Mugging: Victims and attackers give their accounts - BBC News](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17589574) The muggers want money and expensive phones. They choose the victims most likely to have them. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2017, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frequently-kidnapped-category-of-people-is-adult-males/790380/3 "2017-07-02T21:13:51Z")
The answer would probably depend very much on whether ‘abduction of children by the non-custodial parent’ is included in the definition of ‘kidnapping’ (or counted as a separate offence). ---
**Author:** ![Marci\_Al](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Marci\_Al](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marci_Al)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frequently-kidnapped-category-of-people-is-adult-males/790380/4 "2017-07-03T00:33:14Z")
Kidnap-rape gangs will of course beg to differ. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frequently-kidnapped-category-of-people-is-adult-males/790380/5 "2017-07-03T00:52:04Z")
Did she mean globally? Quite a few young men of college age are kidnapped in Mexico, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frequently-kidnapped-category-of-people-is-adult-males/790380/6 "2017-07-03T01:10:55Z")
What are the categories? If one category is “adult males”, and another is “females between the ages of 12 and 12 1/2 years”, then it’s quite plausible. If, on the other hand, the categories are “adult male”, “adult female”, and “child”, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frequently-kidnapped-category-of-people-is-adult-males/790380/7 "2017-07-03T01:53:27Z")
If we expand kidnappings world wide, I could see claim being correct. I don’t have any stats, but I suspect that the number of kidnapping being committed by Mexican Cartels, Nigerian pirates and Afghani warlords far outstrips the rare abjuctions in the US, and the demographics of those who put themselves in a position where they are in danger of being kidnapped may favor males. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frequently-kidnapped-category-of-people-is-adult-males/790380/8 "2017-07-03T02:09:28Z")
Some statistics from the U.S. show females are more frequently kidnapped: > **[How many people are kidnapped each day in the US?](https://www.quora.com/How-many-people-are-kidnapped-each-day-in-the-US)** > > Answer (1 of 15): Dependsthere are so many forms of “missing", those who run away, those who are lost, murdered, kidnapped etc. But I want to touch on the kidnapped part. We have a pandemic thank s much larger than the one we are facing now with... ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frequently-kidnapped-category-of-people-is-adult-males/790380/9 "2017-07-03T02:28:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What are the categories? If one category is “adult males”, and another is “females between the ages of 12 and 12 1/2 years”, then it’s quite plausible. If, on the other hand, the categories are “adult male”, “adult female”, and “child”, not so much. Never heard her elaborate on the other categories, but I suspect there were four in total: Adult men, adult women, underage boys and underage girls. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frequently-kidnapped-category-of-people-is-adult-males/790380/10 "2017-07-03T13:26:13Z")
There’s also the category of “missing and presumed kidnapped” … the nasty shrewish wife waiting days for the husband to come home so she can nag him until oh-dark-thirty … yeah, she might report him kidnapped when he comes up missing … “Kidnapped and presumed murdered” is one way out of child support payments as well … ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frequently-kidnapped-category-of-people-is-adult-males/790380/11 "2017-07-04T16:36:37Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > I don’t know about kidnappings Informative first response. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frequently-kidnapped-category-of-people-is-adult-males/790380/12 "2017-07-04T17:52:40Z")
My WAG? Like with most crimes, most kidnapping victims are targeted by people they know. Since adult males are the group with the largest proportion of criminals, that implies that they’re also the ones who know the most criminals, which means they know the most kidnappers. In other words, most kidnapping are essentially internal crimel world shenanigans - criminals kidnapping other criminals, and people who hang out with criminals. That means a disproportionate number of young men.