Sexual Exploitation of Missing Children: A Research Review

• NCJ Number: 114273
• Author(s): G T Hotaling; D Finkelhor
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 48 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Corporate Author: University of New Hampshire, Family Research Laboratory
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Best Practice/State-of-the-Art Review
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper evaluates current knowledge about the prevalence, dynamics, and short-term and long-term effects of sexual exploitation among missing children, based on empirical research findings, from books, papers presented at professional meetings, doctoral dissertations, works in progress, and more than 75 articles in professional journals.

Abstract

Most of this research has been conducted in the last 10 years. The report examines three categories of missing children: 1) runaways, 2) victims of parental kidnapping, and 3) victims of nonfamily abduction. Findings indicated that between 11 and 23 percent of runawys become involved in prostitution; the rate is higher for females than males. About 25 percent of male and female juvenile prostitutes take part in the production of pornography. Runaways are at higher risk of rape and other forms of sexual coercion than are other adolescents. No evidence exists that parentally abducted children are at any greater risk of sexual exploitation than children in the general population. Little information exists on the relationship between sexual abuse and no family abduction, although sexual abuse is one of the motivations for child abduction. Research recommendations, and 82 references. (Author summary modified)