The following analyses were conducted on a decade of incidents committed by individuals unknown to the children (Jan. 1, 2005-Dec. 31, 2014). These incidents, which were known to NCMEC and confirmed by law enforcement, consisted of a variety of offender and child interactions, including verbal and non-verbal communication, physical contact (sexual or otherwise), and/or short-term/distance abduction and escapes/releases. More specifically, these incidents included short-term abductions with or without a known sexual assault component, sexual assault without abduction, attempted abductions, indecent exposures and suspicious incidents. For the purposes of these analyses, incidents were only included if the child was not reported missing to law enforcement at the time of the incident and if they occurred solely in person; the online enticement of a child was not included. Overall, the findings were based on 9,872 children and 9,027 offenders involved in 8,015 unique incidents, most of which lasted minutes or, at most, a few hours. Among these incidents, important patterns emerged regarding the event types, incident timing and location, offenders’ methods and how children got away.
