Hacker News Reader

That is almost entirely runaways and of the small fraction that isn't they are usually abducted by other relatives. About 99% of them return home [safely](https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/196465.pdf#page=6). Taken (2006) style kidnappings basically do not happen.

Edit: https://www.missingkids.org/ourwork/impact says there were 142 "nonfamily abductions" in 2021 and 121 of those were resolved.

And most of those are taken by a parent or close family member if I remember correctly. So that's not really relevant.

That stat doesn't provide much insight when asking about ransom or the sort of criminal schemes we're talking about.

I know. If only the data were collected at all so we could have a discussion about kidnapping in the USA....