NCJ Number
130916
Date Published
1990
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART) provides the first estimates derived from comprehensive scientific investigation regarding these children.
Abstract
NISMART is based on a telephone survey of nearly 35,000 households, a survey of juvenile facilities, an interview study to compare the accounts of runaway children who returned home with those of their parents, a study of records in a national sample of 83 law enforcement agencies, an analysis of 1976-1987 Federal Bureau of Investigation homicide data, and an analysis of data derived from a 1986 study of child abuse and neglect. NISMART distinguishes between the more inclusive legal definition, abduction, and its more exclusive subset, stereotypical kidnaping. The former includes coerced taking, forcible detaining, or luring of a child. The latter may involve ransom demands and even murder. NISMART also shows differences between family and nonfamily abductions. Although less than 1 percent of children involved in family abductions were sexually abused, about two-thirds of nonfamily abductions involved sexual assault. Force was used against 87 percent of the victims in nonfamily abductions, and a weapon was involved in 75 percent of the cases. A total of 450,700 broad scope runaways left or stayed away from home at least overnight or ran away from juvenile facilities. Almost all runaways were teenagers, and 58 percent were girls. Children thrown or locked out of their homes constituted 22 percent of the combined total of runaways and thrownaways. Family division was a significant factor in the plight of thrownaways. Nearly half of the 438,200 broad scope lost, injured, or otherwise missing children were under 5 years of age. Only 1 percent of these children, however, had not returned home at the time of the NISMART interview. 4 figures