White people, meanwhile, make up 54% of missing persons reports and 76% of the US population. According to 2020 FBI data, Black people make up 35% of missing persons reports but only 13% of the US population. Note: The NCIC includes people who identify as Hispanic or Latino in the “White” category.Source: National Crime Information Center’s Missing Person and Unidentified Person Files, 2020, US Census Bureau(Graphic: Priya Krishnakumar, CNN)Īnd while the cases of missing White women are given more focus and urgency, people of color are disappearing at disproportionate rates. Of those cases, Black and Native American people made up a larger share of missing persons than their total share of the US population. The FBI’s National Crime Information Center’s list of active missing persons showed almost 90,000 active missing persons cases at the end of 2020. “When we see a White person who has gone missing, we say that could be my daughter, neighbor or cousin or friend… and they identify with that person and are more likely to read the story than we would if it were a person of color.”īlack and Native Americans make up disproportionate share of active missing persons cases “As a culture we are readily willing to accept stories about White folks as victims as something we should care about,” he said.
ARE BLACK PEOPLE THE MISSING LINK TV
Zach Sommers, a criminologist and author of the Northwestern study, told CNN that bias and systemic racism play a role in Missing White Women Syndrome - a term he said was coined by the late TV news anchor Gwen Ifill. The study points out that missing Black people are less likely to garner media attention at the outset than other groups and when they do make the news and they receive a lower intensity of coverage. Some experts say the nation faces “Missing White Women Syndrome,” which is defined by the heavier media attention White women and girls receive when they go missing compared to anyone outside of those demographics, according to a study published by the Northwestern University School of Law in 2016. The issue has for years prompted people of color to take matters into their own hands, holding rallies, launching independent probes and seeking help from community advocates and lawmakers to get their cases in the public eye. Some say they have grown frustrated with watching the search for missing White women like Petito being in the spotlight, while police appear to allow their cases to go cold or classify their loved one as a “runaway.” Robinson is among the Black and brown families whose loved ones remain missing and say they have struggled to get fair attention on their cases. “You wish you lived in a world where everything was equal but it’s really not equal,” Robinson told CNN.
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