With the exception of ‘emotion-based incidents/offences/crimes’, due to William’s foster and biological parents having been cleared in the investigation into his disappearance, the following excerpt may give some general insight into investigations of the abductions of children of William’s age:
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Investigating Potential Child Abduction Cases
Preschool Children (3 to 5 years)
When compared to cases involving toddler victims, emotion-based offenses are less common in preschool children. Sexual crimes, however, occur more frequently. Toddlers, whose increased mobility and desire for independence make them more difficult to control, may cause their caregivers increased stress and frustration.[16]*
Preschoolers, on the other hand, are often more physically and emotionally developed. This generally reduces dependence and pressure on parents and primary caregivers, decreasing the number of parental emotion-based incidents. Along with their physical and emotional development, however, preschoolers exhibit greater autonomy and experience more prolonged lapses in adult supervision. For example, parents often allow preschoolers to play in their front yards with minimal supervision, providing strangers and acquaintances greater access to these children. Increased ease of access, greater physical maturity, and inherent vulnerability may account for the increase in sexual and profit crimes involving preschool victims as compared to toddlers. Not surprisingly, strangers and acquaintances are often the perpetrators of sexually motivated and profit-based offenses in preschool children.
For preschoolers, emotion-based crimes are predominately familial with biological parents (primarily fathers) and parental boyfriends/girlfriends commonly responsible for these offenses. Offenders are most often males and their victims primarily female, which differs from the slightly higher male victim population in the infant and toddler groups. In cases where offenders kill victims, approximately one-half dispose of the body within 100 yards of the abduction site (almost always the victim and offender's shared residence). However, some offenders who kill their victim transport the remains greater distances, attempting to separate themselves in time and space from the abduction site.
Sexually motivated abductions, while more common than in toddlers, occur less frequently in preschoolers than emotion-based crimes. When they occur, however, females are usually victims. The race of both the victim and the offender closely matches the demographics of the area where the abduction takes place. Usually, offenders are male and an acquaintance of the victim (commonly neighbours). This represents a drastic departure from the large number of family offenders found in emotion-based preschool cases. Again, the accessibility of the victim appears to be a critical factor in dictating victim-offender relationship.
Preschoolers who are victimized by sexually motivated offenders are often abducted from their yards or neighborhoods by offenders who know them and who have ready access to these locations. These offenders often have a history of previous sexual misconduct. Some of these offenders desire children as their preferred sexual partners (preferential offenders) while others are simply sexually indiscriminate (situational offenders). Almost all sexual abductions of preschoolers occur at or within 1 mile from the victim's home.
Profit-based offenses (e.g., ransom, extortion, robbery, drug related) involving preschool victims are rare. Stereotypical incidents involving young children kidnapped for ransom are especially rare (less than 1 percent).[17]* In preschoolers, profit-based abductions generally occur in the context of crimes against older victims, where the abducted preschooler is taken because of a pre-existing parental drug debt or in the course of a carjacking or robbery. A thorough investigation of friends, associates, and subordinates of the child's parents often provides valuable insights into the origins of these crimes.’
Investigating Potential Child Abduction Cases.. (n.d.)
>The Free Library. (2014). Retrieved Oct 15 2017 from
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Investigating+Potential+Child+Abduction+Cases.-a075959748
[*
Note: Numbered references can be found at the link above.]
