Missing children in the European Union : mapping, data collection and statistics

The "Study on missing children: mapping, data collection and statistics on missing children in the European Union" was conducted by Ecorys on behalf of DG Justice from July 2012 to June 2013 and had two main objectives: to collect and analyse data and to develop the basis to improve the mechanisms involved when children go missing in the 27 EU Member States ; to use and to build on existing data and indicators to obtain sustainable, comparable data and indicators on missing children in all 27 Member States covering the period 2008-2010 (and 2011 where available). It was carried out in four phases: an inception phase for fine-tuning the methodology and workplan, a mapping phase where detailed information was collected on current definitions, responses and potential data sources in all Member States, a data collection phase where actual data where gathered from official and non-official sources (with a focus on the former), and a finalisation phase in which recommendations were developed.