Amber Alerts and Child Kidnapping – Facts vs. Fears

Child kidnapping is a tragic event, without a doubt. The Amber Alert system is helpful, without a doubt. But the fear that most parents feel about kidnapping and the paranoia they have about “stranger danger” is blown out of proportion, without a doubt, based on the real facts about child kidnapping.

Only one Amber Alert child was murdered by a stranger in 2007 and that child was 12 years old. Overall, 40% of the approximately 110 children kidnapped by a stranger (which is categorized as “Stereotypical Kidnapping”) were murdered. Most were teenage girls, not elementary school children.

If parents are going to worry about child kidnapping, they need to focus their worry on the right age group (adolescents and teens) and they need to focus on the right predators (people known to the children, not strangers).