Overview:

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) supports an effort to improve the measurement of and available information on the size, scope, and nature of key aspects of the nation's missing children problem, as reported to law enforcement. This work builds on the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART) 1, 2, 3, which were conducted in 1988, 1999, and 2011, in response to the requirements of the 1984 Missing Children's Assistance Act. The prior NISMART data collections conceptualized the problem of missing children, provided critical information about the relative frequency and types of episodes involving missing children, and informed the development of policies and interventions to reduce the problem.

Goals and Objectives:

The goal of this project is to implement data collection and study design efforts to position OJJDP to produce accurate and reliable national estimates of missing children reported to law enforcement triennially and to contribute to the field's understanding of the extent and nature of key aspects of the nation's missing children problem. Under a cooperative agreement with OJJDP, Westat and the University of New Hampshire's Crimes against Children Research Center are partnering to meet the following objectives:

• To design and pilot test a more cost-effective methodology for collecting national data on the child victims of stereotypical kidnappings known to law enforcement. The project will use a web-based format to reduce costs in collecting incident-level data and ensuring that current data elements are comparable to prior surveys to the extent possible.
• To implement the redesigned survey and data collection methods to produce accurate and reliable national estimates of child victims of stereotypical kidnappings known to law enforcement agencies.
• To develop and pilot test instruments and sampling methods to collect information from law enforcement agencies on family abductions and other types of missing and returned children in preparation for a national survey.
• To produce statistical products, methodological reports, and other scholarly research reports for dissemination to the public to advance the field's understanding of our nation's missing children problem.

Publications and Products:

Under a prior OJJDP award, Westat and the University of New Hampshire produced planning papers and draft instruments to establish an initial foundation for the redesign of NISMART.

Sedlak, A.J., Finkelhor, D., Brick, J.M., and Wolak, J. 2016. Law Enforcement Survey Redesign: Planning Papers and Draft Instruments. Rockville, MD: Rockville Institute.

Contact Information:

Andrea J. Sedlak, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator
andreasedlak@westat.com | 301-251-4211
Westat, Inc.

David Finkelhor, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator
david.finkelhor@unh.edu | 603-862-2761
University of New Hampshire

Benjamin Adams, Social Science Analyst
Benjamin.Adams@usdoj.gov | 202-616-3687

Brecht Donoghue
Brecht.Donoghue@usdoj.gov | 202-305-1270