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Summary:
Concern about missing and exploited children gained national prominence over 20 years ago when 6-year-old Adam Walsh was abducted and killed. Consequently, several parents of missing children and other interested persons worked for the passage of the Missing Children's Act of 1982, and later for the Missing Children's Assistance Act of 1984 (MCAA) to assist in recovering such children and to bring the perpetrators to justice. MCAA created the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and required periodic incidence studies to determine the number of children reported missing and recovered in the nation in a given year. Last authorized in 1999, MCAA is up for reauthorization in the 108th Congress. In 1990, the first incidence study was released entitled, National Incidence Study on Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children in America (NISMART1). In October 2002, a second incidence study referred to as NISMART-2 was released. Both studies found that the concept of missing children was complex and that children can be considered missing because of a wide range of circumstances. NISMART-1 estimated that in 1988, 200 to 300 children were kidnapped by strangers. NISMART-2 found that in 1999, 115 children were kidnapped by strangers. Although such kidnappings appear to have declined, the Department of Justice concluded that trends could not be established because of design differences in the studies. NISMART-2 found that family abductions, 203,900, outnumbered stranger abductions, 58,200, which included stereotypical kidnapping among many other types of situations. In 1996, a local system to help recover abducted children, called the AMBER Alert plan, was created in the Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas area and named for 9-year-old Amber Hagerman who was abducted and killed. In the 108th Congress, several bills have been introduced to create a national AMBER Alert system. S. 151, the Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act, was passed, amended, and signed into law (P.L. 108-21) to develop and/or enhance AMBER Alert plans, reauthorize NCMEC, and strengthen law enforcement and federal criminal code provisions related to missing and exploited children. S. 773, the Protecting Our Children Comes First Act, was introduced to reauthorize funding for MCAA and for NCMEC and was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. On April 29, 2003, the House Subcommittee on Select Education, of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, held a hearing to prepare for the upcoming reauthorization of MCAA, which includes NCMEC. H.R. 1925
