Federal Programs for Troubled Youth

This book looks at the problem of children who are reported missing, abducted, or exploited daily. Missing and or exploited child cases are extremely challenging and frustrating to the practitioners handling these cases since the devastating impact occurs simultaneously and on so many fronts - child, family, community, law enforcement, public and private agencies - each one looking for immediate answers. Beginning in the late 1970s, highly publicised cases of children abducted, sexually abused, and often murdered prompted policymakers and child advocates to declare a missing child problem. At that time, one and a half million children were reported missing annually. Recognising the need for greater federal co-ordination of local and state efforts to recover missing and exploited children, Congress created the Missing and Exploited Children's (MEC) program in 1984 and more recently, the Runaway, Homeless, and Missing Children Protection Act in 2003, created to authorise federal funding for the Basic Center Program, Transitional Living Program and Street Outreach Program. This book examines such programs and discusses the current actions of policy-makers who are attempting to alleviate this serious problem.