How many missing children are there?

Answer: The problem of missing children is complex and multifaceted. There are different types of missing children including family abductions; endangered runaways; nonfamily abductions; and lost, injured, or otherwise missing children. The best national estimates for the number of missing children are from incidence 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 National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART-1) was released in 1990, and the second, known as NISMART-2, was released in October 2002. According to NISMART-2 research, which studied the year 1999, an estimated 797,500 children were reported missing; 58,200 children were abducted by nonfamily members; 115 children were the victims of the most serious, long-term nonfamily abductions called "stereotypical kidnappings"; and 203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.

I was teaching at a private school. Two of the children in my class were brother and sister. It was a K-1 combined class. Something felt different about these children. They would watch each other when our conversation turned to weekend fun. A day at the park,or just talking about friends the children played with at home. One day I decided to take their pictures to put up on the class wall. Perhaps my thoughts were right. They never returned to our school again.

But what is even more weird is that two months after the children had left our school recieved a call. It was from a school about 2 hours away. What had happened was the mother had registered her children at this new school. She used a piece of paper to leave her new phone number. But on the other side it had our school address on it. So the principal called our school and was asking the same questions about the children.

I'm sure they left this school also. We also found out that they were living in the camper parks. We think she was hiding from an abusive husband. But we will never know for sure.

Very good question/comment.

It's shocking of how many people are really missing in this world, but what is more, how many of them are children. It's horrific to guess that the majority are raped and killed.

This is so sad, and unfortunately it's a problem that isn't getting enough attention. These children's pictures should be everywhere. We need to put them on walls and everything.

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Yes, I have also heard that are over a hundred thousand children come up missing each year. While a lot of these cases do get solved, there are still far too many that do not. Hopefully, with sites like these, we can help to reunite many of these children with their families.