Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: FBI statistics show that an estimated 465,000 children were reported missing in the United States in 2016. Chief of the Violent Crimes Against Children Intelligence Unit Kevin Gutfleish breaks down those numbers.

Kevin Gutfleish: Most of those cases are going to be children that are lost or have run away or that were taken by somebody they know. And those children may or may not be in danger.

Halpern: Though rare, the FBI sees cases in which children are missing for more sinister reasons.

Gutfleish: Children may be lured into sex trafficking or other types of exploitation, and in the rarest of circumstances—about 115 cases a year on average—the child is abducted by a stranger.

Halpern: While the FBI observes National Missing Children’s Day on May 25, special agents are working every day to solve cases involving missing and exploited children.

Gutfleish: We have 72 Child Exploitation Task Forces across the United States, and we even have a specialized Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team that can be dispatched at any moment to assist on a missing child case.

Halpern: With FBI, This Week, I’m Mollie Halpern of the Bureau.