MISSING (Hargrove,SHNS) The FBI for the first time has obeyed a 1990 act of Congress by making a public accounting of lost, runaway and kidnapped children. There were 662,196 children reported missing by police to state and federal authorities last year. Fifty-eight percent of the missing children reported in 2005 were girls and 33 percent were black _ a high percentage that surprised advocates for missing children.

With: MISSING-CHART

MISSING-POLL (Hargrove and Stempel, SHNS) At least one in every eight adults in America ran away from home for more than a day as children, making juvenile flight a far more widespread problem than is commonly realized. A study by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University found that slightly more than 12 percent of the 1,016 adults interviewed last month reported they fled home at least once during childhood. That would translate to at least 27 million Americans.

With: MISSING-RESULTS, MISSING-GROUPS

MISSING-FAIL (Hargrove, SHNS) _ The Justice Department for years has violated an act of Congress by refusing to reveal how many lost, runaway and kidnapped children have been reported to the FBI, a policy that turned America's missing youth into a state secret. 1,200.

With: MISSING-SIDE, MISSING-LAW, EDMISSING
With photos: SH05G216MISSINGFAIL, SH05G217MISSINGFAIL, SH05G218MISSINGFAIL

MISSING-AMBER (Hargrove, SHNS) _ Amber Alerts are supposed to be "a fire bell in the night" _ a rare application of emergency radio and television alert systems to rescue kidnapped children in the critical first minutes after they've been abducted by strangers. But a Scripps Howard News Service study has found that nearly a decade after the kidnapping and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman sparked the nationwide system, police are flagrantly overusing the alerts aimed at preventing more deaths like hers. 1,900.

With MISSING-RULES, MISSING-HISTORY, MISSING-FINDINGS, MISSING-HOWDONE.
With photos: SH05G040MISSINGAMBER, SH05G041MISSINGAMBER, SH05G042MISSINGAMBER, SH05G043MISSINGAMBER.

MISSING-RUNAWAY (Hargrove, SHNS) _ Geography more than anything else determines how America's runaway children will be treated. America lacks a coordinated, or even consistent, policy to deal with its runaways, who number an estimated 1.3 million each year. Teenagers face an erratic patchwork of state laws and police policies. Sometimes, runaways will be aggressively pursued as criminals. Other times, they will be ignored.

With photos: SH05F017MISSINGRUNAWAY, SH05F018MISSINGRUNAWAY.

MISSING-NEWYORK (Hargrove, SHNS) _ New York City police almost never report runaway, lost or kidnapped children to federal and state authorities on the same day they go missing. Half the time, it takes the nation's largest police department more than four days to report missing children to the FBI, in apparent violation of federal law. City police concede that they could do better. 1,000. With MISSING-CHART.

	Nadine Whigham holds the missing poster she helped distribute in an attempt to locate her granddaughter Bryona Williams, 15, who was later found killed. (Photograph by Rebecca Cook for Scripps Howard News Service)

MISSING (Hargrove, SHNS) _ Each year, police departments around the nation fail to correctly report thousands of missing-children cases to the FBI in violation of federal law. These failures jeopardize the chances that children will be safely recovered. At least 17 children have died after police failed to correctly report them missing, according to a three-month study by Scripps Howard News Service. At least three major law-enforcement agencies _ the Honolulu Police Department, the U.S. Navy's Criminal Investigative Service and the Detroit Police Department _ have rewritten their missing-person policies as a result of this investigation. This study is a first-of-its-kind review of lapses by police to abide by the National Child Search Assistance Act. It will provide specific records for almost every community in America. 3,700.

With photos: SH05E094MISSING, SH05E095MISSING, SH05E096MISSING, SH05E097MISSING, SH05E098MISSING, SH05E099MISSING.
With logo: SH05E100MISSING.
With graphics: SH05E101MISSING, SH05E102MISSING, SH05E103MISSING, SH05E104MISSING.

MISSING-ABR (Hargrove, SHNS) _ An abridged version of the mainbar. 2,000.

MISSING-DETROIT (Hargrove, SHNS) _ DETROIT: The city with the most unsolved missing-child cases in the country and a history of murdered missing children is changing how it reports such cases to the FBI. 750.

MISSING-BADCASES (Hargrove, SHNS) _ A look at a handful of noted missing-child cases. 300.

MISSING-HOWTO (Hargrove, SHNS) _ Guidelines offered by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Polly Klaas Foundation on steps to take if you think your child is missing. 350.

MISSING-METHOD (Hargrove, SHNS) _ A look behind the SHNS study of missing children. 500.

MISSING-LAW (SHNS) _ The text of the National Child Search Assistance Act of 1990. 400.

MISSING-CHART1 (SHNS) _ A look at missing-children rates by state. 450.

MISSING-CHART2 (SHNS) _ A look at missing-children rates by city. 450.

MISSING-CHART3 (SHNS) _ A look at missing-children rates by demographic. 450.