How many missing children are there?
Answer: The problem of missing children is complex and multifaceted. There are
different types of missing children including family abductions;
endangered runaways; nonfamily 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 Thrownaway 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 nonfamily members; 115
children were the victims of the most serious, long-term nonfamily
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?
Answer: 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—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, weight, 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 our toll-free
telephone number, 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). If your computer is
equipped with a microphone and speakers you may talk to one of our
Hotline operators via the Internet
