Missing and Exploited Children: Background, Policies, and Issues

Adrienne L. Fernandes-Alcantara
Specialist in Social Policy

Beginning in the late 1970s, highly publicized cases of children abducted, sexually abused, and often murdered prompted policy makers and child advocates to declare a missing children problem. At that time, about one and a half million children were reported missing annually. A more recent count, in 1999, estimated that approximately 1.3 million children went missing from their caretakers that year due to a family or nonfamily abduction, running away or being forced to leave home, becoming lost or injured, or for benign reasons, such as a miscommunication about schedules. About half of all missing children ran away or were forced to leave home, and nearly all missing children were returned to their homes. The number of children who are sexually exploited—defined broadly to include a continuum of abuse, from child pornography to commercial sexual exploitation—is unknown. Over 278,000 verified incidents of child pornography were reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) from 1998 through 2010.

Recognizing the need for greater federal coordination of local and state efforts to recover missing and exploited children, Congress created the Missing and Exploited Children’s (MEC) program in 1984 under the Missing Children’s Assistance Act (P.L. 98-473, Title IV of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974). The act directed the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to establish both a toll-free number to report missing children and a national resource center for missing and exploited children; coordinate public and private missing and exploited children’s programs; and provide training and technical assistance to recover missing children. Since 1984, NCMEC has served as the national resource center and has carried out many of the objectives of the act in collaboration with OJJDP.

In addition to funding NCMEC, the MEC program currently supports the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force program to assist state and local law enforcement cyber units investigate possible incidents of online child sexual exploitation. The program also funds technical assistance for the AMBER Alert System, which coordinates state efforts to broadcast bulletins in the most serious child abduction cases. Other initiatives supported by the program include membership support services for a nonprofit missing children’s organization, which serves families of missing children, and as of FY2010, efforts to respond to sexual exploitation involving youth perpetrators and victims.

The MEC program was last reauthorized by the Protecting Our Children Comes First Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-240) through FY2013. The legislation authorized funding for specific activities for NCMEC, including formally authorizing activities that were already carried out by the organization. Although the ICAC program has been funded since FY1999 under the MEC line item in appropriations acts, it is formally authorized by the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-401). For FY2011, Congress appropriated $70 million for the MEC program.

The subject of missing and exploited children is broad and, therefore, this report covers only select aspects of the topic. The report begins with an overview of the topic, including definitions and estimated numbers of children known to be missing or exploited. It then provides information about the MEC program’s funding, oversight, and major components. Finally, it discusses related issues that may be relevant to Congress. The report briefly addresses other related federal programs and initiatives.


Date of Report: May 2, 2011
Number of Pages: 47
Order Number: RL34050
Price: $29.95

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