Missing Persons Investigations

Historically, state criminal law has prohibited non-familial abduction and kidnapping, and the public has expected swift and aggressive investigation into such cases. The kidnapping and murder of the son of Charles A. Lindbergh in 1932 led to a federal statute, the Federal Kidnapping Act, which allowed U.S. Department of Justice intervention and prescribed severe penalties for transporting the victims of kidnapping across state or national boundaries.

According to the FBI, as of 2003, there were 97,297 active missing persons cases in the United States; the majority, 85%–90%, of these missing persons are juveniles. In roughly 725,000 cases, the disappearance of a child or adult was serious enough that it was reported to the police, the police took a report, and entered the report into the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC). The NCIC is a nationwide information system that serves and supports local, state, and federal criminal justice agencies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Canada. According to the NCIC, a missing person is defined as (a) a person of any age who is missing and who is under proven physical/mental disability or is senile, thereby subjecting that person or others to personal and immediate danger; (b) a person of any age who is missing under circumstances indicating that the disappearance was not voluntary; (c) a person of any age who is missing under circumstances indicating that that person's physical safety may be in danger; (d) a person of any age who is missing after a catastrophe; or (e) a person who is missing and declared unemancipated as defined by the laws of the person's state of residence and does not meet any of the entry criteria presented in a–d.

The primary NCIC categories in which missing persons reports are entered are either “Juvenile,” “Endangered” (adults and juveniles defined as missing and in the company of another person under circumstances indicating that his or her physical safety is in danger), or “Involuntary” (adults and juveniles missing under circumstances indicating that the disappearance was not voluntary). In addition, based on the identity of the perpetrator, there are three distinct types of kidnapping: family (49%), acquaintance (27%), or stranger (24%). Family kidnapping is committed primarily by parents, involves a larger percentage of female perpetrators than other types of kidnapping offenses, equally victimizes juveniles of both sexes, and most often originates in the home. Acquaintance kidnapping involves a comparatively high percentage of juvenile perpetrators, has the largest percentage of female and teenage victims, is more often associated with other crimes, occurs at homes and in residences, and has the highest percentage of injured victims. Stranger kidnapping victimizes more females than males, occurs primarily [Page 290]at outdoor locations, victimizes both teenagers and school-age children, is associated with sexual assaults in the case of girl victims and robberies in the case of boy victims, and is the type of kidnapping most likely to involve the use of a firearm.

In 1975, the FBI created a Missing Persons File within the NCIC database. Missing persons investigators acquired another resource when, 8 years later, NCIC established the Unidentified Person File. The records maintained in this file allowed law enforcement officers to compare information from their missing persons cases against descriptions of unidentified bodies from jurisdictions across the country. An enhancement in that resource was gained in 2000 with the passage of the Child Abuse and Prevention Enforcement Act, which included a provision called Jennifer's Law, a mechanism used in compiling all descriptive information on deceased, unidentified persons throughout the United States whose cases are entered into NCIC. In addition, Jennifer's Law provides incentives for public agencies and nonprofit organizations that develop or improve programs to (a) assist law enforcement and families in locating missing adults; (b) maintain a national, interconnected database for the purpose of tracking missing adults who are determined by law enforcement to be endangered because of age, diminished mental capacity, or the circumstances of disappearance, when foul play is suspected or circumstances are unknown; (c) maintain statistical information of adultsreported as missing; (d) provide informational resources and referrals to families of missing adults; (e) assist in public notification and victim advocacy related to missing adults; and (f) establish and maintain a national clearinghouse for missing adults.

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