The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction

Since 2006, the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team (CARD) has deployed in 55 casesinvolving 58 children. In sixty-one percent (61%) of these cases, the abductor had a knownrelationship to the child. Persons with known relationships to the child could seem like unlikelysuspects. However, in 2009, the FBI’s CARD Team has had the most deployments since beingestablished in 2006. This is an indication that child abductions are an increasing problem andposes a threat to families. The motive behind some abductors with a known relationship to achild include; sexual intentions, divorce, ransom, a vicious act of retaliation.Of the cases in which the CARD Team was deployed, there were 32 female child victims, and 26male child victims. A majority of these reported abductions were committed by family members(35%), or persons with a known relationship to the child (29%), totaling 64 % of reportedabductions were committed by persons with a known relationship to the child. Of 54 cases theCARD Team has deployed on only 6% were registered sex offenders. Abductions committed byfamily members are sometimes initially reported as an abduction and later discovered to be afalse allegation. For example, a parent will claim their child was abducted, when in fact theyhave murdered the child.Of the 55 CARD Team deployments, the motive of the abductor was determined in 27 cases:58% (15) of the deployments were sexually motivated, 24% (7) of the deployments weremotivated by family issues, and 8% (2) of the deployments were motivated by ransom/money.While more than half of the deployments have been sexually motivated it is important to notethat does not mean the suspects were registered sex offenders at the time of the abduction. Of the58% of sexually motivated cases, 34% (9) of the suspects had a known relationship with thechild.Although child abduction is a reactive threat, the FBI remains proactive by conducting researchon new and continuing trends in child abduction. Moreover, the FBI will strive to maintainupdated statistics, in order report trends and best practices that law enforcement can use in aneffort to reduce the risk of child abduction.The FBI’s Child Sex Tourism (CST) Initiative was developed to address the numerous child sexoffenders in the US who travel abroad to procure children in other countries for sexual purposes.These offenders believe that they can commit a crime against a child with impunity abroadbecause they feel they are no longer subject to US law, that they are “anonymous” whiletraveling abroad, that they can claim ignorance of local laws, and that the local population wouldbe reluctant to report such crimes to law enforcement. Some offenders even rationalize that theyare “helping” prostituted children by providing them with a source of income, and that sexbetween adults and children is socially acceptable in the victim child’s culture. The victims ofthis crime are generally impoverished children who must join the workforce at an early age tohelp support their families.Numerous countries in Southeast Asia are so well-known for child sex tourism that there areentire neighborhoods which are considered brothels, and there are open-air markets wherechildren can be purchased for sex. Children are sometimes sold to pimps by their own familiesbecause of extreme poverty, and sex acts between adults and children can be witnessed in publicplaces such as bars and restaurants.45