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December 10, 2006

How many missing children are there?

The problem of counting missing children is complex and multifaceted.

There are different types of missing children - family abductions, endangered runaways, non-family abductions, and lost, injured, or otherwise missing children. The best national estimates for the number of missing children are from incidence studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

To date two such studies have been completed.

The first National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrown-away Children (NISMART-1) was released in 1990, and the second, known as NISMART-2, was released in October 2002. According to NISMART-2 research, which studied the year 1999, an estimated 797,500 children were reported missing. 58,200 children were abducted by non-family members. 115 children were the victims of the most serious, long-term non-family abductions called "stereotypical kidnappings" and 203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.

How many missing children are found deceased?

What hours are most critical when trying to locate a missing child? According to a 1997 study by the State of Washington’s Office of the Attorney General "the murder of a child who is abducted ... is a rare event. There are estimated to be about 100 such incidents in the United States each year, less than one-half of one percent of the murders committed" however, "74 percent of abducted children who are murdered are dead within three hours of the abduction."

Act immediately if you believe that your child is missing.

If your child is missing from home, search the house, checking closets, piles of laundry, in and under beds, inside old refrigerators, the washer and dryer—wherever a child may crawl or hide.

If you still cannot find your child, immediately call your local law-enforcement agency.

If your child disappears in a store, notify the store manager or security office. Then immediately call your local law-enforcement agency. Many stores have a Code Adam plan of action - if a child is missing in the store, employees immediately mobilize to look for the missing child.

When you call law enforcement, provide your child's name, date of birth, height, and weight. Describe their hair color and style and any other unique identifiers such as eyeglasses and braces. Tell them when you noticed that your child was missing and what clothing he or she was wearing. Request that your child's name and identifying information be immediately entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) Missing Person File.

After you have reported your child missing to law enforcement, call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children on their toll-free telephone number, 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). If your computer is equipped with a microphone and speakers you can talk to one of their Hotline operators via the Internet.

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