WASHINGTON – The FBI has issued a public accounting of lost, runaway and kidnapped children reported by police to state and federal authorities in 2005. According to Scripps Howard News Service, this is the first time the agency has complied with the 1990 act by Congress mandating publication of this information.
Last year, 662,196 children were reported missing. Of that number, 58 percent were girls and 33 percent were black. Approximately two-thirds of all of the missing children were between the ages of 15 and 17. In 2005, 2,223 infants were reported abducted.
The records, which were released at the request of Scripps Howard News Service, indicate the number of cases reported to the FBI have declined during the past 10 years. Last year, however, the number of incidents increased by 7 percent. The peak year for cases was 1995 when 791,687 children were reported lost, runaway or kidnapped.
