Missing Children​—How Widespread a Tragedy?

‘MY CHILD IS MISSING!’

There could be few greater causes of anxiety for most parents than having to utter those words. While no exact global figure can be established for the number of children missing from their homes, we can learn how widespread a tragedy it is through published reports in many countries.

IN THE United States, from 500,000 to over 1,000,000 children, depending on how they are classified, are listed as missing from their homes each year. They may be missing a short period of time or be missing permanently. England reports that almost 100,000 children disappear annually, although some say the number is much greater. The former Soviet Union spoke of tens of thousands of children as missing. In South Africa the number is said to be more than 10,000. And in Latin America, millions of children face this tragedy.

A spokesman for the Italian Ministry of the Interior indicated the dimension of the problem there when he said, as noted in L’Indipendente: “They leave home on a day like many others. They go to school or to play, but they do not come back. They disappear, vanish into nothing. Family members desperately search for them, but there are only faint traces, insufficient clues, few​—and uncertain—​eyewitnesses.”

A recent study in the United States on the magnitude of this problem revealed that the heading “missing children” includes, in actuality, several categories. One category is children abducted by strangers. Another is children abducted by a parent, as in custody cases. Then there are the throwaways, children unwanted by parents or guardians. There are also runaways, another large category. And there are those lost or otherwise separated from their family for just a few hours or for a day or two​—mostly children staying out beyond the time agreed upon or children whose parents have misunderstood their intentions. Very, very few of these stay missing.

However, what happens to the missing children in the more serious categories? Why does this tragedy happen? This issue of Awake! examines various aspects of the tragedy and answers the question, When will it end?