Author Description

The first part of the project resulted in a book entitled Missing and sexually exploited children in the EU. Epidemiological data. The book stresses the importance of EU-wide multidisciplinary and integrated efforts (between competent authorities and civil society organisations) in collecting epidemiological data as a basis for improved, knowledge-based policy-making in the area of missing and sexually exploited minors. It comprises country reports of all 15 EU Member States. Each country report provides essential definitional information regarding the various forms of sexual exploitation of children and types of missing children, outlines the way data collection on sexual exploited and missing children by various governmental (police, judicial, other) and non-governmental actors is organised, and deliver available data on the phenomena concerned. A final, comparative report bridges the country report information into a first Union-wide epidemiological state of the art, thus showing that current data collection is organised in a very chaotic and poor fashion. At the same time, the report identifies the main weaknesses and shortcomings of applied data collection methods. It also offers a set of recommendations for both Member State and EU action in striving for improved and integrated ways of collecting, administering and centralising reliable, comparable and comprehensive data on the various forms of missing and sexually exploited children.