<center><font size="1" color="#ff0000">LAST EDITED ON Aug-13-02 AT 08:20 AM (EST)</font></center><p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/07/18/child.abductions.ap/index.html";>http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/07/18/child.abductions.ap/index.html<;/a><P>EXTRACT:<BR>Statistics indicate abductions of children by strangers are declining. <P>Bell said the FBI opened investigations in 93 such cases last year, compared with 134 in 1999. Some abductions by strangers do not result in FBI involvement, but the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates the total number of cases annually at 100 now, down from 200 to 300 in the 1980s. <P>"It's still a terrible problem," said Ernest Allen, the center's president. "But the good news is, these cases have been coming down. Cases like Samantha Runnion's, as outrageous as they are, are pretty rare." <P>Experts in the field say precise statistics on child abductions are elusive, in part because different jurisdictions define the crime differently. <P>"For a crime that gets as much public attention as it does, its pretty appalling that there are not better statistics," said David Finkelhor, a sociology professor who heads the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Center and has worked with the Justice Department to discern patterns in child abductions. <P>However, he agreed that the number of worst-case abductions, like the Samantha Runnion case, is probably declining. <P><P><P>