National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Key Facts

In 1984, John and Revé Walsh and other child advocates founded the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) as a private, non-profit organization to serve as the national clearinghouse and resource center for information about missing and exploited children.
Unfortunately, since many children are never reported missing, there is no reliable way to determine the total number of children who are actually missing in the U.S.
When a child is reported missing to law enforcement, federal law requires that child be entered into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, also known as NCIC.
According to the FBI, in 2016 there were 465,676 NCIC entries for missing children. Similarly, in 2015, the total number of missing children entries into NCIC was 460,699.
This number represents reports of missing children. That means if a child runs away multiple times in a year, each instance would be entered into NCIC separately and counted in the yearly total. Likewise, if an entry is withdrawn and amended or updated, that would also be reflected in the total.
During the last 33 years, NCMEC’s national toll-free hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678), has received more than 4.4 million calls. NCMEC has circulated billions of photos of missing children, assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 243,000 missing children and facilitated training for more than 333,000 law enforcement, criminal/juvenile justice and healthcare professionals. NCMEC’s Team HOPE volunteers have provided resources and emotional support to more than 60,000 families of missing and exploited children.
Nation Center For Missing & Exploited Children by the Numbers(i)
MISSING
In 2016 NCMEC assisted law enforcement and families with more than 20,500 cases of missing children.
Case type:
* 90 percent endangered runaways.
* 6 percent family abductions.
* 1 percent lost, injured or otherwise missing children.
* 1 percent nonfamily abductions.
* 2 percent critically missing young adults, ages 18 to 20.
Of the more than 18,500 endangered runaways reported to NCMEC in 2016, one in six were likely victims of child sex trafficking. Of those, 86 percent were in the care of social services when they went missing.
NCMEC also participates in the AMBER Alert Program, a voluntary partnership between broadcasters, transportation agencies, law enforcement agencies, and the wireless industry to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child abduction cases. NCMEC serves as the secondary distributor of these alerts and, to date, 868 children have been successfully recovered as a result of the AMBER Alert program, including 40 recoveries credited to the wireless emergency alert program.1
NCMEC’s forensic artists have age-progressed more than 6,300 images of long-term missing children and created more than 500 facial reconstructions for unidentified deceased children. NCMEC is currently assisting with more than 725 cases of unidentified children’s remains, and so far has assisted in 98 identifications.
Team Adam, which provides rapid, on-site assistance in cases of critically missing children, has deployed more than 1000 times.2 The program was named after Adam Walsh, the abducted and murdered son of NCMEC co-founders John and Revé Walsh.
Project ALERT®, which provides technical assistance and outreach regarding long-term missing child cases, has assisted families, communities, criminal justice, and forensic professionals more than 9,700 times.3
NCMEC has analyzed more than 12,900 attempted child abductions to identify trends and help develop safety tips for families.
For more information visit www.missingkids.org
EXPLOITED
NCMEC operates the CyberTipline, a national mechanism for the public and electronic service providers to report instances of suspected child sexual exploitation.
In 2016 the CyberTipline received 8.2 million reports, most of which related to:
* Apparent child sexual abuse images.
* Online enticement, including “sextortion.”
* Child sex trafficking.
* Child sexual molestation.
Since its inception, the CyberTipline has received more than 20 million reports.4
To further NCMEC’s mission and help reduce proliferation, NCMEC has sent more than 164,000 notifications to electronic service providers regarding publicly accessible websites (URLs) on which suspected child sexual abuse images appeared.5
NCMEC’s Child Victim Identification Program, which helps to locate and rescue child victims in abusive images, has reviewed more than 199 million images and videos and law enforcement has identified more than 12,900 child victims.6
NCMEC has assisted with more than 86,000 requests related to helping locate noncompliant sex offenders.7