Highlights From the NISMART Bulletins

• NCJ Number: 247791
• Date Published: October 2002
• Length: 2 pages
• Publication Series: OJJDP NISMART Series
• Agencies: OJJDP

Annotation

This Fact Sheet highlights key findings presented in the first four bulletins of the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART).

Abstract

The NISMART Bulletin entitled, "National Estimates of Missing Children: An Overview" presented five key findings: 1) The total number of children who were missing from their caretakers in 1999 (i.e., their caretakers did not know their whereabouts and were alarmed for at least an hour while trying to locate; them) is estimated to be 1,315,600; 2) Nearly all of the caretaker missing children (1,312,800 or 99.8 percent) were returned home alive or located by the time the study data were collected; 3) Nearly all of the caretaker missing children (1,312,800 or 99.8 percent) were returned home alive or located by the time the study data were collected; 4) Most of the caretaker missing children became missing because they ran away (48 percent) or because of benign misunderstandings or miscommunications about where they should be (28 percent); 5) Children who were missing because they became lost or injured accounted for 15 percent of all caretaker missing children; 6) Nine percent of caretaker missing children were abducted by family members, and only 3 percent were abducted by non-family perpetrators. Key findings from the remaining three Bulletins focus on statistics for "Nonfamily Abducted Children: National Estimates and Characteristics;" "Children Abducted by Family Members: National Estimates and Characteristics;" and "Runaway/Thrownaway Children: National Estimates and Characteristics."