NCJ Number
91952
Date Published
1982
Length
208 pages
Annotation
Parents of missing children and law enforcement officers testified to support a bill establishing a national clearinghouse for missing children using a computer in the FBI's National Crime Information Center which could also track and identify the remains of unidentified victims.
Abstract
A panel of parents whose children were still missing or had been missing and subsequently found dead described their experiences with the police and the media. Issues raised were feelings of paranoia created by the experience, the inability of the FBI to enter such cases, police and community criticism of parents with missing children, and implications of the term runaway. Perspectives on locating missing children were presented by a panel of individuals from the Houston Police Force, Child Find, and the missing persons bureau of the Bergen County (New Jersey) Sheriff's Department. They described techniques to find missing children developed in Houston after that city experienced mass murders of children in 1973 and services provided by Child Find, a nonprofit organization involved in educational and search services. The Bergen County police officer, who initiated their missing persons bureau in 1976, comment that it was probably the only such unit that monitors missing people out of its jurisdiction. He also discussed problems in information sharing among police agencies regarding unidentified bodies and parental kidnapping. The document provides witnesses' prepared statements, materials published by advocacy organizations, and the text of the proposed legislation, S. 1701.