Stephen J. Morewitz

Missing Persons: Forensic Sociology Factors

Using data from published self-reports and the results from the Missing Persons Project (MPP), this chapter analyzes the ways in which different individual, family/friendship, community, media, law enforcement, organizational, legal, and technological factors may influence the social construction and prevalence of missing persons. It analyzes how these conditions may affect the structure, process, and outcomes of missing person investigations. In addition, the impact of missing persons on their families and friends and the effects of missing persons on the larger community are assessed.

Missing Persons: An Introduction

Many people go missing each year, and their fate often remains unknown. In Europe, approximately 250,000 children are reported missing annually (Missing Person, n.d.). In the USA, 84,136 active missing person records were maintained in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) on December 31, 2013 (NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics for 2013). About 35,000 individuals are reported missing in Australia on an annual basis (Australian Federal Police, n.d.).

Conduct Problems Among Runaway and Homeless Teens

Using data from published self-reports and the results from the Missing Persons Project (MPP), this chapter analyzes conduct problems among runaway and homeless youth. In this analysis, the prevalence, risk factors, comorbid conditions, impact, and treatment of conduct problems among runaway and homeless young people are presented.

Food Insecurity and Related Problems Among Homeless and Runaway Youth

This chapter focuses on street youth’s survival strategies associated with obtaining food while on the streets and the problems associated with food insecurity. In this chapter, the prevalence of food insecurity, the social meanings associated with food insecurity, the street youth’s hoarding behaviors, dietary intake patterns, use of food sources, food-obtaining strategies, types of accommodations, the amount of time since leaving home, social network characteristics, history of abuse and neglect, and related behaviors are presented. This chapter discusses the street youth’s obstacles in obtaining food such as poor health, limited food availability, and lack of clean environments. In this chapter, other factors that may increase food insecurity such as demographic characteristics, history of caretaker abuse and neglect, human trafficking, unstable housing, alcohol and other drug use and abuse, pregnancy, and lack of social networks and social support are analyzed.

Runaway and Homeless Youth Interventions

This chapter evaluates the effectiveness of primary and secondary intervention approaches in responding to runaway and homeless young people. Primary prevention approaches seek to prevent homelessness and runaway behaviors and other adverse behavioral consequences among youth in the general community. Primary prevention can use a youth development model that has been effective in helping youth with a variety of problems. Secondary prevention targets young people who have run away or become homeless. Investigators and practitioners believe that these secondary intervention approaches should be comprehensive and customized to the needs of the runaway and homeless young people. These interventions should also address the street youth’s criminal/delinquent activities, school truancy, substance abuse, risks for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including human immune virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and other mental health, social, and behavioral problems. Program outcomes such as reducing rates of runaway/homeless behavior, improving psychosocial functioning, reducing HIV risk behaviors, and strengthening family relationships are analyzed.

Runaway and Homeless Sexual Minorities

This chapter evaluates the degree to which young people who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual or transgender (LGBT) and those who are still questioning their own sexual identity are at increased risk of becoming a runaway, thrown-away, or homeless youth because of their minority sexual orientation. This chapter discusses the societal stigma, prejudice, discrimination, and social isolation and rejection that LGBT youth encounter because of their sexual orientation. Researchers have developed the term “gay-related stress (GRS)” to describe the chronic stresses that are related to stigmatizing minority sexual orientation victimization (SOV), e.g., harassment and physical violence suffered by individuals who are known to be LGBT or who divulge their sexual minority status. LGBT youth from disadvantaged racial and ethnic minority groups also may suffer additional chronic stress because of their racial and ethnic minority status. Their parents who are influenced by the dominant heterosexual norms and values of society may kick them out of their home or the LGBT youth may run away because of parental rejection and conflict over their sexual minority orientation. This chapter assesses the LGBT youth’s rates of running away, victimization, hate crimes, survival sex, and other high-risk behaviors. In this chapter, interventions for this population are also presented.

Court Responses to Runaway Offenses and Other Juvenile Status Violations

This chapter discusses the ways in which the courts respond to youth who run away from home and commit other offenses. Runaway youth may be classified as status offenders. Status offenses are non-criminal behaviors that are treated as violations only because the offender is a minor. Classifying juvenile behavior as status offenses is designed to restrict the youth’s behavior in order to promote their safety and health. States may classify runaways and other status violators as delinquents, while in other states status offenders are considered neglected or abused dependents. Some states classify status violators as a separate category. Status offenders may be referred to juvenile court or the runaway’s first contact is with a state child welfare agency. In other states, the status offender may be sent to a residential facility or the juvenile is required to participate in community-based interventions. If these informal strategies are not successful, juvenile courts will formally process them. In addition, A Child in Need Supervision petition can be filed with the court to assist juveniles who repeatedly commit status violations such as running away from home. This chapter also analyzes factors that increase the probability that youth will commit status offenses and disparities in the juvenile justice system.

School Issues Facing Runaway and Homeless Youth

This chapter discusses school problems facing young people who run away from home or become homeless. In this chapter, school failure, expulsion, and other adverse school outcomes facing homeless and runaway young people are discussed. This chapter evaluates factors that increase the risk of adverse school outcomes such as school absences, school failure, suspensions, and expulsion. This chapter analyzes why youth are at risk for having disruptive, behavioral problems in school, performing poorly, skipping school, failing school, being suspended or expelled from school, dropping out of school, and running away from home because they suffer from abuse and trauma and have learning disorders such as attention-deficit, hyperactivity disorder, conduct problems, and other related behavioral and mental health problems. In this chapter, the prevalence of school problems such as truancy, school detention, and school suspension and expulsion are presented. This chapter also discusses the federal McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act role in providing federal funds for homeless shelter programs in the USA to make sure that homeless young people get access to education.

Running Away from Substitute Care

This chapter assesses why youth are placed in substitute care such as foster care, the prevalence of eloping from substitute care, and the duration of eloping from these out-of-home settings. This chapter analyzes the institutional conditions of substitute care and the demographic, social, psychological, and behavioral conditions that may increase at the probability that young people will elope from substitute care settings. This chapter discusses organizational issues such as the differences in social service agencies’ classification of elopement and the resources available to agencies in locating and returning youth who have gone absent without leave. This chapter discusses the role of emergency runaway shelters for youth who have eloped from substitute care. In addition, the conditions that increase the risk that youth will elope from substitute care are presented. Such factors as placement instability or disruption, substitute care neglect and abuse, demographic characteristics of the youth in substitute care, peer influence, substance use, and family issues are discussed. This chapter also analyzes the impact of frequent elopement from out-of-home placement settings on the youth’s future social, educational, and employment status. Interventions to improve substitute care are also discussed.

Substance Use Among Homeless and Runaway Adolescents

This chapter analyzes the rates and types of substance use and abuse among homeless and runaway youth and young people in the general population. In this chapter, the rates of street youth using substances such as tobacco, marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, hallucinogens, methamphetamine, ketamine, heroin, and MDMA (ecstasy) are presented. In this chapter, risk factors such as the street youth’s demographic characteristics, parental use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs, family dysfunction, negative peer influence, and social networks are analyzed.