Frequently Asked Questions

If you have not yet contacted law enforcement officials to report your missing child, please do so immediately. Ask them about the issuing an AMBER Alert.

Through AMBER Alert, law enforcement agencies and broadcasters activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child abduction cases. Request that law enforcement put out a Be On the Look Out (BOLO) bulletin. Ask them about involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the search for your child.

Additional helpful information for families about what to do when a child is missing is available in the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention report, When Your Child is Missing: A Family Survival Guide and the Missing and Exploited Children page. Also contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 800-843-5678 and view their Missing-Child, Emergency-Response, Quick-Reference Guide for Families.

Also visit the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) website. NamUs is a clearinghouse for missing persons and unidentified decedent records. This free online system can be searched by law enforcement officials, other allied professionals, and the general public to solve these cases.

To receive AMBER Alerts in your area via Facebook, visit the AMBER Alert Facebook page. From this page click on "AMBER pages" and then click on the page(s) for states and/or territories from which you wish to get alerts. You may "Like" as many state/territory pages as you wish. When a child goes missing in your area, you will begin receiving updates.

The AMBER Alert page on the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) website, lists other ways to receive AMBER Alerts including Twitter (Follow @AMBERAlert to receive rapid AMBER Alert notifications on your Twitter feed and share the alert with your followers). The NCMEC website also features ways to connect your Google and Yahoo! pages with the AMBER Alerts.

You may also follow Amber Alerts on Instagram to receive AMBER Alert notifications in your feed.

To learn more about the AMBER Alert program, please see the Office of Justice Programs' AMBER Alert website.

Missing and exploited children statistics are available in resources from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Statistics section of the Office of Justice Program's Missing Children Special Feature.

For additional information, visit the Child and Youth Victimization section of our website and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website.

The U.S. Department of State's Children's Passport Issuance Alert Program works to prevent international parental child abduction. The program allows parents to register their U.S. citizen children under the age of 18. If a passport application is submitted for that registered child, the U.S. Department of State will contact and alert the parent(s).

To learn more and to register a child, visit the Passport Issuance Alert Program website.

Visit the Report a Crime section of the U.S. Department of Justice website to learn how you can report child pornography or cases involving the sexual exploitation of children.

You can also report suspicion of child sexual exploitation to your local police, your ICAC Task Force or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline (www.cybertipline.com or 1–800–843–5678).

You can learn about the signs associated with child abuse and neglect by viewing the Child Welfare Information Gateway fact sheet, What Is Child Abuse and Neglect? Recognizing the Signs and Symptoms.

If you need to report a case of suspected child abuse or neglect, each state designates specific agencies to receive and investigate reports of suspected child abuse and neglect. Typically, this responsibility is carried out by Child Protective Services (CPS). For information or assistance with reporting, please call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 800–4–A–CHILD (800–422–4453) or contact your local CPS agency.

Additional state contact information is available from the Child Welfare Information Gateway website.

Visit the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children website for data on nonfamily abductions.

Information on the phenomenon known as the "cycle of violence," in which a childhood history of physical abuse may lead the survivor to be more likely to commit violence in later years, is available in the National Institute of Justice resources:

• Pathways Between Child Maltreatment and Adult Criminal Involvement
• Effects of Child Maltreatment, Cumulative Victimization Experiences, and Proximal Life Stress on Adult Crime and Antisocial Behavior
• An Update on the Cycle of Violence
• Childhood Victimization: Early Adversity, Later Psychopathology

To learn more, visit the National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence, a series of publications funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

To view publications and other resources related to the treatment of children who have been exposed to violence, visit the Office of Justice Programs’ Children Exposed to Violence Special Feature. This online resource also provides information on the prevalence of childhood exposure to violence, along with information on prevention.

Also visit the National Institute of Justice’s CrimeSolutions.gov website. CrimeSolutions.gov provides evaluations of justice-related programs and practices, including programs aimed at working with children exposed to violence.

Data on family violence are available in the following Bureau of Justice Statistics resources—

• the Intimate Partner Violence publication series,
• the National Crime Victimization Survey Victimization Analysis Tool, and
• Family Violence Statistics: Including Statistics on Strangers and Acquaintances.