Missing Children

Missing children, as a concept, is defined as “children whose whereabouts are unknown to their parent, guardian, or legal custodian.” The term refers to children who have been abducted by either a family or nonfamily member and includes children who have been abducted within the United States and those who have been abducted from the United States to a foreign country. It includes those who may later be identified as runaway or throwaway children and those who are lured away through child exploitation. As the definition states, it may also refer to children whose whereabouts are simply unknown.

This entry is concerned primarily with nonfamily and family abductions. Experts estimate that 85 percent to 90 percent of missing-person reports to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have to do with children. Based on this estimation, in 2000, 750,000 (or 2,100 children per day) were reported missing according to the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC).

The key NCIC categories in which missing-child reports are entered are juvenile, endangered, and involuntary. Most missing-child cases are entered into the juvenile category, including some nonfamily abduction where there is no evidence of foul play. Endangered is defined as “missing and in the company of another person under circumstances indicating that his or her physical safety is in danger.” The involuntary group includes abduction or kidnapping and is defined as “missing under circumstances indicating that the disappearance was not voluntary.”

Kidnapping and murder of a child by a stranger were once thought to be the most common type of child abduction, but this is a misconception. Nonfamily abductions receive the most media attention but actually account for the smallest percentage of missing children. Teens and girls tend to be the [Page 259]most common victims of nonfamily abductions, but infants can also be at risk. In the majority of cases, the abductions were for relatively short periods of time and involved sexual assault. Parental abduction of children is a serious concern in the United States, where over half of all children spend time in single-parent households. The risk of international abduction is heightened in relationships where dual citizenship with the United States exists.

In 1988 the first National Incidence Study on Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Throwaway Children in America (NISMART) was conducted, with its findings published in 1990. NISMART indicated that more than 1 million children are victimized through abduction annually. This estimation, however, did not include police data on family abductions. The study established five categories of missing children for its examination: nonfamily abductions, family abduction, runaways, throwaways, and other missing children.

NISMART 2 is now under way. Researchers have expanded the number of missing children categories to eight in the current national study. The purpose is to distinguish between custodial interference and more serious family abductions. Runaway and throwaway children are combined into one category. The new version also distinguishes between general missing-child cases, in which the children are lost, and those in which the child is injured. The number of children who were sexually assaulted will be identified, and the study will account for children who were missing as a result of simple miscommunication and were not in any danger.

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