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"Center For Missing and Exploited Children" Interview with Ann Scofield
What is the mission of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children?
Answer: The mission of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is to help prevent child abduction and sexual exploitation, help find missing children, and assist victims of child abduction and sexual exploitation, their families, and the professionals who serve them.
How many missing children are there?
Answer: The problem of missing children is complex and multifaceted. There are different types of missing children, including those who have been abducted by family members; those who have been abducted by non-family members; endangered runaways; and lost, injured, or otherwise missing children. The best national estimates for the number of missing children are the result of 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, entitled National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Throwaway Children (NISMART-1), was released in 1990; the second, known as NISMART-2, was released in October 2002. According to NISMART-2, an estimated
- 797,500 children (younger than 18) were reported missing in a one-year period, resulting in an average of 2,185 children reported missing each day;
- 203,900 children were abducted by family members;
- 8,200 children were abducted by persons outside the family; and
- 115 children were the victims of "stereotypical" kidnapping. These crimes involve someone the child does not know, or knows only slightly, who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently.
REFERENCE: For more information on missing children and NISMART-2, please visit the Media section at www.missingkids.com.
Are many missing children found deceased? What hours are most critical when trying to locate a missing child?
Answer: According to a 1997 study, Case Management for Missing Children Homicide Investigation, the murder of an abducted child is a rare event; an estimated 100 such incidents occur in the United States each year. However, the study further found that 74 percent of abducted children who are murdered are dead within three hours of the abduction.
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