With a brief internet search, I found this study.

http://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Documents/CJB/cjb94.pdf

It's not of cases in the U.S.A, but I assume motives are pretty much the same world wide.

Correct, and say what you will about the FBI, they have a pretty good record of finding kidnappers.   Not so great a record in safe recovery, but they will find the suspects.  If you travel outside the US, you are automatically at risk as a Rich Norte, if you stray from safe zones or guarded, guided groups.

Kidnapping in the US generally falls into 2 broad categories.

Kidnapping of a minor child by an estranged parent, and usually attempting to flee to far distant parts.  More property titled as Interference with parental custody,  Those, generally, do not involve danger of death or physical harm to the child by the kidnapping parent.  a few cases have, but, generally not.

Kidnapping for sexual gratification. 
and that falls into 2 categories as well.

Instant gratification, with the death of the victim occurring within a short time frame, hours to a few days.  If the, usually, minor child, female, age 5 to 12, is not found within a few hours to perhaps 48 hours, then we figure it is a murder and sexual assault investigation. That's the one that parents of young girls fear the most, if they have even thought about it.

Kidnapping with the willing assistance, or non-resistance, of the "victim".
Tenn. is working one that appears to be along these lines right now.  suspect and victim spotted in Oklahoma.  she's like 15 and he's 50. I have questions about the resistance of a 15 year old girl, traveling cross country, that she can't get away, or draw attention to herself, if she intends to actively resist.

so, broad sweep, generalizations.  not hard and fast, carved in stone. 



 

Motives in the US tend to be quite different than in other parts of the world.  Kidnapping for ransom is a significant business for criminal gangs and mob types in many parts of the world.  Not so much in the US, because it tends to bring the FBI down on the perps in a hurry.

Yes although its picking up in the southwest US by obvious persons.

Two things I teach in my Women's/Teen safety classes:

1) to blatantly rip off Col. Cooper, "Alertness is Tactic #1" Its hard to get anything over on you if you are alert and they can't sneak into attack range.

2) Fight like a maniac at the initial abduction scene even if they have a weapon. Scream, honk, flee, fight, fluff them up. Do anything you can to dissuade them because horrific things await you at the secondary crime scene that they plan to take you to. They will have all the time in the world and every tool at their disposal to rape, torture and slowly kill you. I tell each student that any parent would rather their child died fighting at the scene than be taken away to a horrible end and they'd never know what happen to them. As fluffed up as that sounds, I'd much rather my kid go down swinging in the mall parking lot than duct taped to a bed then thrown away in the dark woods when they're done with you.

I think that we can all agree that while we may not have the numbers or overwhelming force on our side, we still have choice. Yes, we may not have the choice to live or die, but we can choose where we die and I'd rather be shot in broad day in a parking lot then end up like something out of the Hi-Fi murders in the 70's.

Sarge, I believe it was your brother who posted something here a few years ago about a co-worker of his (I think he said he was a fairly new LEO) who gave compliance to a criminal and ended up meeting a pretty horrible fate. It's too late right now for me to comb through the forum and it was quite a while ago, but I remember SLM saying something along the lines of his department listened/watched the dash cam footage and it solidifed it in his mind to always go down fighting, that he wouldn't plead or beg with a criminal for his life.

I am 90% sure it was SLM, but it might've been one of our other LEO's here who posted it.

It was me.

Trooper Shawn Blanton surrendered his weapon at gunpoint on June 17, 2008.

I loved him. I watched him grow up. His dad is one of my dearest friends. He was the first member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee to become a NC state trooper. That said, and I'm Monday morning the hell out of this and always have, he should have tried to draw and shoot that bastard Eduardo Wong despite Wong having the drop on him. He was shot anyway even after complying with Wong's demands to disarm. Shawn begged for his life. I've  watched the dash cam hundreds of times. I will be double damned if I will ever beg and I may be shot to rags, but I will go down swinging for the fences. 

Shawn's death wasnt in vain. It spawned a renaissance in officers safety training in our state especially a course designed and taught by NC trooper Kirk Hensley entitled "Surviving the First Three Seconds."

http://www.odmp.org/officer/19429-trooper-david-shawn-blanton-jr

Thanks for posting that again Sarge. I have a question from the obituary that you posted. Did Trooper Blanton have 2 children and one passed or he had only one child that passed at 4 months of age?

Either way, the whole thing is tragic. I'm surprised the crim didn't get the death penalty.

From that one article, I think he had one that died at four months old... About four months after his father was killed.  That would really suck to be the wife/mother.

  I've been told this sounds morbid (but it's true), but another thing is:

If you get killed resisting somewhere in public, at least your family has a body to bury.  Not a big question mark in their lives wondering where/when/how.

   

  I've been told this sounds morbid (but it's true), but another thing is:

If you get killed resisting somewhere in public, at least your family has a body to bury.  Not a big question mark in their lives wondering where/when/how.

   

Exactly

  I've been told this sounds morbid (but it's true), but another thing is:

If you get killed resisting somewhere in public, at least your family has a body to bury.  Not a big question mark in their lives wondering where/when/how.

 

When I was still running convoys in Iraq as a civilian, we were not authorized firearms.
Most of us carried 2-3 knives in various locations strapped to out body armor,ect.  Used to hear some people inside the wire snicker and make comments about us thinking we were Rambo, ect, and how we were fooling ourselves if we thought we'd be able to defend ourselves with knives from guys armed with AKs if we were stranded in a ditch.
They didn't seem to get the point, the knives weren't there because we thought we could carve our way to freedom through a group of insurgents.  The knives were there so that the insurgents would have to kill us if they wanted to get within arms reach. None of us cared for the idea of staring in a propaganda video, or having our families hold onto false hope if we were held hostage.
If you aren't going to be able to get away, better to go down on your own terms.