Are you putting your child at risk for kidnapping?-- 4 main types of kidnappings you have to know

Kidnapping is definitely one of the biggest worries among parents. Down here are the four different types of kidnappings that you have to learn basic knowledge of, and know how to prevent and deal with them when happening.

-Stranger kidnapping
Many people don’t know that stranger kidnappings only account for a small part of kidnapping cases. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), only 1% of child missing cases are stranger kidnapping in the United States every year; however, we still have to take precautions of it. Dragging a child in public is pretty much just something happens in movies, an actual kidnapping in real life mostly operates like this: a friendly young guy with a cute puppy says that he can show more puppies somewhere else or a nice, well-dressed lady asks for help carrying some boxes to her car. These are the common lures used in a stranger kidnapping. They use these lures to distract kids from noticing the potential danger and easily snatch them away.

Statistics have shown that over half of all random abductions (53%) occur between the hours of 3:30 pm and 10:00 pm over half of all random abductions (53%) occur between the hours of 3:30 pm and 10:00 pm. 45% of these abductions happen on a Friday or Saturday. Not only this, but 41% of random kidnappings happen during the summer months of June, July, and August.

-Family kidnapping
The rise of family breakup and the ease of international travel have led to an increase in family kidnapping. It affects 203,000 children every year in the United States. Yet, it is believed that many cases of family kidnapping are unreported since lots of people don’t even realize it is a crime! The NCMEC defined family kidnapping (also called parental kidnapping) as “the wrongful removal or retention of a child by a parent.” Therefore, any actions that involve it should be seen as a criminal act.

-Acquaintance kidnapping
Juveniles themselves are often perpetrators of acquaintance kidnapping. This type of abduction has the highest rate of injured victims(mostly female) and are often related to sexual or physical assault. It affects 58,000 children every year in the United States.

-Virtual kidnapping
As technology grows, accesses to someone’s private information is much easier nowadays. Social media, chatrooms, and online games are all perfect hunting grounds for kidnappers. They collect all the information to make themselves as convincing as possible to trick parents.

People who has fallen victim to virtual kidnapping claimed that it was terrifying. The moment they picked up the phone, they got this overwhelming message that their loved one had been kidnapped and they were threatened to do whatever kidnappers asked or harm would come to their child. They were too panic to evaluate whether it was true or not, all they wanted to do was having money transferred as soon as possible.

To learn more about what you should do to prevent different types of kidnappings from happening, check out this Kidnapping Prevention Guide Kidnapping Prevention Guide by KidGuard.