There are several ways to categorize missing children...

• Your child can be missing briefly because of a minor misunderstanding or childhood forgetfulness, during which he may not even know that his parents consider him missing

• A child may also get lost, or may be injured in a place where he can’t call for help

•A child may be a runaway: the majority of missing adolescents are runaways

• A child may be a “throw-away”, a child actually told by a caretaker to leave home

• A child may be abducted by a relative, most often as the result of a custody or visitation dispute

• A child may be the victim of a non-family abduction. This category includes the Stereotypical Kidnapping, which is the most frightening of circumstances and, as a federal crime, requires the involvement of the FBI.


* Statistics based on Office of Juvenile Justice and Deliquency Prevention