It takes cooperation among police, the media and the public to find a child who disappears — and all three groups are less likely to give their best efforts for missing Black children.
According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 98% of children reported missing are located within days. Of those who are not, most are Black.
Earlier this year, the USA TODAY Network set out to identify, for the first time, the reason for this disparity. Reporters around the country have been fighting for public records and interviewing families, advocates and experts to understand why Black children are less likely to be found.
They are following a few leads:
- Black children are disproportionately classified by the authorities as runaways, which results in less effort to locate them.
- The media, composed of mostly white reporters, relies on police for information about which missing children are newsworthy.
- When police and reporters work to get the word out, members of the public are less likely to engage with stories about missing children of color.
And they welcome your help. If you know of missing children in your community, please reach out through this form. (Note: We will not use your information without your permission.)
Take Alexis Patterson, a 7-year-old Milwaukee girl who disappeared in May 2002, about a month before Elizabeth Smart. Elizabeth’s story hit national news immediately, while Alexis’ took six weeks. Elizabeth was found nine months after her abduction, while Alexis is still missing.
“By her being a little African-American little girl who disappeared, they just wasn't focused on her enough, as if she was a little white girl,” Alexis’ mother said of the police. “And that hurt me. That affected me for many, many years.”
This series of investigations will uncover what goes wrong after kids go missing and how that affects the families left behind.
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