NCJ Number
147250
Date Published
1992
Length
179 pages
Annotation
This manual is designed to assist law enforcement, mental health, social services, and victim/witness professionals in the recovery of missing children and in the reunification with their families.
Abstract
The goals of the Reunification of Missing Children Project are to: (1) increase understanding of the factors that must be addressed in unifying missing children with their families; (2) identify promising strategies that assist families in adjusting to the return of a missing child; (3) identify support services, if any, that have been provided by the agencies involved in returning missing children; (4) identify techniques to assist custodial parents with the reunification of a returned child whose appearance and personality have changed or a returned child who was given negative information about the other parent; and (5) improve the capability of law enforcement, social services, and other community agencies to effectively reunify missing children with their families. Persons who have completed this training program will understand: (1) the incidence of stranger and nonfamily abduction, family abduction, and runaways in the United States; (2) the characteristics of the child victim and abductor/exploiter experience; (3) the characteristics of the recovery and reunification experience for victims and families; (4) the specialized investigative and trial issues for cases where a crime is involved; (5) the specialized emotional and social adjustment issues facing recovered children and their families; (6) how to effectively assist in the recovery and reunification process; and (7) how to begin developing a coordinated, multiagency community approach to the recovery and reunification process.