Ok, straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak -
FBI research revealed that 74 percent of children abducted and murdered were killed within the first 3 hours of their disappearance. To aid local law enforcement and FBI investigators in child abduction investigations, the FBI created the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD) team in 2006. Since its inception, CARD has provided field offices with the resource of additional investigators with specialized experience in child abduction matters. As of September 2011, the CARD team has assisted in the investigation of 69 child abduction cases involving 77 children. Of the 77 children, 31 were recovered alive; 11 remain missing.
CARD statistics also indicated that in 70 percent of these cases, the child was abducted by an individual with a known relationship to the child. In contrast, 10 percent of abductors were registered sex offenders.
http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/p...vember-2011/crimes-against-children-spotlight
So we have 70% with a known relationship, which leaves 30% stranger abductions. Of those "stranger" abductions, often the offender is vaguely known to the family...I would guess at least 50%, maybe more. So that, in turn, leaves 15% who are absolute complete strangers...10% of which are RSO's (already known to the system). The remaining 5% is a statistically TINY amount of true, boogeyman type abductions, where someone steals a child who is completely unknown to them. I assume this tiny percentage would include those mentally ill people who steal a child for reasons OTHER than sexual, like childless women. So that would knock out say another 1%...which brings it down to 4%. Then we factor in the "baby market" where they are stolen to order....possibly another 1-2%...so now we are right down to about 2% actually being the type of "stealing a random child for sexual purposes" that some believe is on every street corner.
Of course I am just guessing the last bit, and may be way off base...even if I am, the figures still illustrate exactly how rare it is...with such a massive country as the US, so much crime and drugs and family breakdown, it's amazing it isn't higher...but there you go.
The type of person who will hunt and abduct a random child for their own sexual pleasure is a very rare beast indeed. Thank God.