Last week, the Justice Department hosted its annual National Missing Children’s Day observance.  Deputy Attorney General James Cole recognized the efforts of law enforcement and citizens across the nation who recovered missing children and combated child exploitation this past year. 

Deputy Attorney General James Cole noted:

  “The Department has laid the groundwork for so many changes in the way we respond to missing and exploited children and it is one of the major priorities for both the Attorney General and me.”

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) supports this Department priority through work with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children; the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program, a national network of 61 coordinated task forces addressing online child exploitation; and the AMBER Alert Program, instrumental in the recovery of 540 abducted children since its creation in 1996. 

OJJDP also works with partners across the country to provide resources to families when a child is missing.  The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s Web site includes resources on how to help keep your child safer or how to know what to do if your child is missing.  This week they also released two new Spanish translations at this year’s ceremony:

• Cuando su hijo ha desaparecido: Una guía de supervivencia para la familia” (4th Edition) (NCJ 232789) is a Spanish translation of the fourth edition of When Your Child Is Missing: A Family Survival Guide, which provides critical advice on what families should do when a child is missing.
• “El delito del secuestro familiar: La perspectiva de hijos y padres” (NCJ 234086) is a Spanish translation of The Crime of Family Abduction: A Child’s and Parent’s Perspective, which offers insights into how an abduction of a child by a family member affects the child and the family.

As the stories of this year’s awardees demonstrate, vigilance can help bring missing children home safely.