One in every children under 12 years of age reported as missing in the United States is Latino, an analysis by Noticias Telemundo has found.
The outlet went through data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), with figures showing that there were 414 children under 12 reported as missing in the country in official records from 2003 to 2023.
130 of those children Latino, the largest demographic of all. They were followed by White children, with 94 cases, and Blacks with 90. The percentage is disproportionately high, as Latinos currently represent less than 20% of the U.S. population.
Trent Steele, director of the Anti-Predator Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to combating human trafficking and sexual predators in the U.S., told Noticias Telemundo that the higher numbers could be attributed to Latinos comprising a larger part of marginalized communities, which have higher rates of issues such as these.
"I think that in the Latino and Black communities, the numbers are a little higher because they are affected by situations of poverty and inequality," Steele said, adding that "many are put in situations where they disappear and flee."
In another passage of the report, John Bischoff, NCMEC's vice president of the missing minors division, told NBC News that "in general we have about 4,500 missing minors in the United States who have active wanted posters on our website." "Those are only the cases that we know of; of that number, around 23% are Hispanic/ Latinos. It is certainly a large population that worries us."
The official went on to say that causes of disappearance for these minors fall generally in the same categories as other demographics, including fugitives in danger, family abductions, nonfamily abductions, among others.
"Endangered runaways make up about 91 to 92% of our caseload. These are children who left what is perceived as a safe environment. If we went back five or 10 years, you could say they ran away, but today, we see that there is a tendency that children meet someone online and maybe go out to talk or be with that person. And that is a big concern," Bischoff added.
The category that follows is family abductions, with 5% of all cases. These happen when a relative takes a minor without the consent of the rest of the family.
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