The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) supports an effort to improve the measurement of and available information on the size, scope, and nature of key aspects of the nation's missing children problem, as reported to law enforcement. This work builds on the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART) 1, 2, 3, which were conducted in 1988, 1999, and 2011, in response to the requirements of the 1984 Missing Children's Assistance Act. The prior NISMART data collections conceptualized the problem of missing children, provided critical information about the relative frequency and types of episodes involving missing children, and informed the development of policies and interventions to reduce the problem.

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