Missing Children
While the term "missing children" may seem clear, a close examination of the issue would reveal a spectrum of circumstances ranging from a misunderstanding about schedules to running away or being the victim of an abduction. Through the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART) and its follow-up, NISMART-2, CCRC researchers sought to create a unified estimate of the number and type of missing children. To accomplish this, NISMART-2 defined missing children as either caretaker missing - when a child is missing from their caretaker - or reported missing - when a child is missing from their caretaker and is reported missing to an agency for help locating them.
- The total number of children who were missing from their caretakers in 1999 (i.e., their caretakers did not know their wherabouts and were alarmed for at least an hour while trying to locate them) is estimated to be 1,315,600.
- The number of missing children who were reported missing (i.e., reported to the police or a missing children's agency in order to locate them) was estimated to be 797,500, which is equivalent to a rate of 11.4 children per 1,000 in the U.S. population.
- Nearly all of the caretaker missing children (non-reported) (99.8%) were returned home alive or located by the time the study data were collected.
Sources: Highlights from the NISMART Bulletins. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (2002). Juvenile Justice Fact Sheet, Washington, DC.
Andrea J. Sedlak, David Finkelhor, Heather Hammer and Dana J. Schultz (2002). National Estimates of Missing Children: An Overview. Juvenile Justice Bulletin–NCJ196465,1-12. Order #MC16
