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There are close to 600,000 people reported missing every year. Of course, most are found, but a concerningly large portion remains missing for months, years, or are never found. The coverage on these people is alarmingly low, which adds to the struggle of finding them. While finding missing people is getting increasingly difficult, there are preventative measures we can take by tracking patterns, encouraging discussion, and exercising caution.
"After my rescue, I had an idea. My goal was to save ONE child, ONE family from going through the nightmare I experienced." Alicia Kozakiewicz
Each kidnapping victim’s story is different. When Alicia Kozakiewicz was 13, she met a catfish named “Christine” online, who she believed was a 14-year-old girl. Evidently, Christine was not 14; he was a 38-year-old man who lured Alicia to him. He did this through talking online and by pretending she was a girl who was Alicia’s age, who wanted to hang out. Alicia was beaten, raped, and tortured for four days until authorities found her. The internet is the easiest place to lie about who you are and remain anonymous, which is why internet safety is so important. You never really know who you are talking to, but it is easy to trust someone who seems so nice online. Additionally, giving out your personal information, like where you live or who you are, can be just as dangerous. Kidnapping from online enticement can also be especially hard to track, because there are so many ways to delete evidence and messages; the reason there are so many stories like this is that it is easier to get away with.
Missing poster for Alicia Kozakiewicz
Alicia now, an advocate for online safety.
MISSING PERSONS' STORIES
MISSING PERSONS' STORIES
When looking into patterns in kidnappers, there are a few that come up. Gender, setting, and religion are all common relations among kidnappers. When talking about the connection the abductor has with the victim, a few more patterns appear. Many abductions that happen within a family are done by female perpetrators. To add on, the article, Child Abduction and Kidnapping by EBSCO states, “About 95 percent of perpetrators of stranger kidnapping are male.” They also discuss the gender of victims and what crimes they are involved in. They say “About 20 percent of the abductions are connected with other violent crimes, such as sexual assault, which is most commonly inflicted on girls. When kidnapping is connected with robberies, boys are more likely to be victims, and firearms are often involved in the kidnapping.” It is interesting, but also important to see how kidnappings are often connected.
Missing posters from the FBI's Kidnapping and Missing Persons subsection. These people, including young children, have not been found, with some going missing as far back as the mid 1900s.
FINDING MISSING PEOPLE
FINDING MISSING PEOPLE
To find a missing person, there are many steps police and search parties take to locate them. They start by trying to recreate the path that the missing person took or was taken to uncover where they went. Using this method, most missing people are found within a day or two, but it can take weeks or even months to complete. To go about this, they gather data from friends and family, security cameras, and any eyewitnesses, to create a full picture of how the person went missing and where they went. While most people are found, some are not found for many years, or never recovered at all. Regardless, police still search for missing people, and the search continues.
The first 3 days of the investigation have an order, whether it is at the FBI level or local law enforcement. First, they try to collect evidence. The quicker they can do that, the more accurate the police are at finding a conclusion. As Dr. Bryanna Fox says, there are fewer “bread crumbs.” These days, these are the most crucial to find the person. Because there are signs that show, and they might be being transported.
Finding missing people creates wrong versions of the story. This makes it difficult to go and find out what’s true and what's not. Since everything is digital, police find lost recording devices, and when they look through them, it creates a lead for them to go off of. Twenty-one to twenty-five kids were found after the filming of a 1994 music video. You can find videos where some people are being chased in places like the woods. When the attacker notices the camera, they back off.
LOCATIONS
LOCATIONS
Where do people go missing the most? According to the World Population Review, the United Kingdom has a kidnapping rate of 7.3 per 100,000 — this lends itself to the more extreme side of the missing persons spectrum, as around 170-180,000 people go missing a year. However, it pales in comparison to the United States' nearly 600,000 recorded missing cases a year — but does that mean you're more likely to go missing in the U.S.? Not necessarily. For one, the populations of both countries are in the millions. A couple of hundred thousand is barely even a fraction of the whole. To add to that, approximately 76% of kidnappings involve familial relations, according to the Juvenile Justice Bulletin, with the majority of them being for underlying causes. When looking into missing cases, location plays a key role. The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (pictured below) shows that the majority of missing cases are in highly populated areas (i.e. Los Angeles and Miami). This makes sense, as areas with higher population density are prone to having higher crime rates; however, in terms of unsolved missing cases, the lack of police resources and witnesses to pool from in smaller towns can make them much more dangerous. In terms of missing persons, location can play a role big enough to decide whether or not they even get found.
In 2023, approximately 375,000 children went missing. The statistics for missing kids in 2023 are as follows:
Over 8,000 kids were white (~2%)
Over 162,000 kids were colored* (~43%)
Over 82,000 kids were female (~21%)
Over 283,000 kids were male (~75%)
*Does not include Hispanic or Latinx
The most common form of kidnapping is abduction by a family member, often over custody disputes. In 2023, there were an estimated 1,500 child abductions, with 290 being non-relative kidnappings. However, the most common reason for missing children is running away, making up over 90% of the cases. When looking into race and gender of victims, the most commonly abducted race is colored, making up 43% of total kidnappings, colored kidnappings not including Hispanic or Latinx. After that is white, which makes up only 2% of total kidnappings. Some of the reasons for this drastic difference are racial biases within the police force, social media coverage, and overall racial inequality.
In conclusion, missing people do not get the coverage they deserve, despite the intensity of their situations. A person can go missing from running away, being kidnapped, or being coerced into leaving their home. All circumstances deserve more media coverage, as missing people are harder to find the longer they are gone. We can make a positive change by promoting internet safety and being mindful with who we connect with.
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