Crime & individuals
Juvenile Runaways
This guide begins by describing the problem of juvenile runaways and reviewing its risk factors. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local runaway problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem and what is known about them from evaluative research and police practice.
Title: Juvenile Runaways
Author: Kelly Dedel
Series: Problem-Oriented Guides for Police Problem-Specific Guides Series No. 37
Number of pages: 86
Date published: February 2006
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This American guide, from the Community Oriented Policing Service, looks at the problem of juvenile runaways and suggests ways to address local runaway problems. The full guide includes an extensive list of questions to help direct your investigation. It also lists 18 strategies that can help in addressing a runaway problem before, during and after a runaway incident. The guide also gives examples of strategies that have been demonstrated to have limited effectiveness in reducing runaways.
Note that the data both in the full report and the summary below refers to the USA unless otherwise stated.
Background
Juveniles run away from home and from substitute care placements, such as foster care or group homes. Most juveniles decide to leave on their own or choose not to return when expected, but in some cases, their parents or guardians tell them to leave or do not allow them to return. A runaway episode refers to an overnight stay away from home, except in the case of young children who can be in danger after a much shorter time. Runaways were once believed to be juveniles seeking adventure or rebelling against mainstream values and the authority of their parents; more recently, runaways have been regarded as victims of dysfunctional families, schools, and social service institutions.
Estimating the number of juveniles who run away is difficult because:
researchers do not agree on the definition of "running away"
juveniles tend to hide their runaway status when talking to adult authority figures
many runaways do not access services and, therefore, are not included in service utilization data.
These difficulties notwithstanding, there were approximately 1.7 million juvenile runaway episodes in the USA in 1999. Only about one-third of these juveniles were actually "missing," meaning that their parents or guardians did not know where they were and were concerned about their absence. Only about one-fifth of all runaway episodes were reported to police. Some parents do not report runaway episodes to police because they know where their children are or because they do not think the police are needed to resolve the issue. Others do not report runaway episodes because they want to avoid police involvement or because they had a negative experience when reporting a previous runaway episode to police.
Most runaways are older teenagers, ages 15 to 17, with only about one-quarter ages 14 or under. Juveniles of different races run away at about the same rates and boys and girls run away in equal proportions. Although juveniles from all socioeconomic statuses run away, the majority are from working-class and lower-income homes.
Runaways have higher rates of depression, physical and sexual abuse, alcohol and drug problems, delinquency, school problems, and difficulties with peers than juveniles who do not run away. Many runaways have been exposed to high levels of violence, either as victims or as witnesses.
Juveniles in substitute care (e.g., foster care, group homes) are more likely to run away than juveniles who live at home with a parent or guardian. The chances of juveniles in care running away are highest in the first few months after placement, and older juveniles are more likely to run away than younger juveniles. Juveniles who run away from substitute care are more likely to run away repeatedly than juveniles who run away from home. Although they are only a small proportion of the total number of runaways, those who run away from care consume a disproportionate amount of police time and effort. Those who run away from care also tend to stay away longer and travel farther away than those who run away from home.
Police encounter runaways, whether reported missing or not, through a number of activities: while patrolling areas where runaways congregate, while investigating missing persons reports, or during criminal investigations in which juveniles were either perpetrators or victims. In 1999, 150,700 juveniles were arrested for running away, less than 10% of all runaways that year. Runaways are also arrested and charged with prostitution, curfew violations, truancy, and drug and alcohol offenses. Police have wide discretion in handling runaway cases depending on whether the children were reported missing, the level of parental or caretaker concern, and the seriousness of the risks the juveniles are believed to face.
Very few runaways are homeless and living on the street. Most stay in relative safety at a friend or family member's home. However, some runaways lack safe living arrangements and stay on the street, in the company of a predatory adult, or in another situation lacking responsible adult supervision. Police and policy makers are most concerned about this group of juveniles, commonly referred to as "street kids," because of the potential for victimization and criminal activity.
The problem of juvenile runaways is particularly complex because it suggests other social problems, such as family dysfunction and child abuse. As a result, police will be able to affect only a segment of the problem directly. Although many things can be done to address the underlying causes of the problem, police are primarily concerned about reducing the harm that comes to or is caused by runaways when they are absent from home or care. For example, some runaways are:
involved in criminal activity, either as victims or as perpetrators
exploited by predatory adults
engaged in risky behaviors such as drug use and unsafe sexual activity.
Despite their interest in protecting children's safety, police often assign a low priority to runaway cases for a number of reasons:
Few jurisdictions have appropriate facilities for placement once runaways are taken into police custody.
Processing paperwork and transporting juveniles consume significant amounts of time.
Most police have competing demands from more serious public safety threats.
Some police believe parents and substitute care providers want police to act as disciplinarians or security guards.
Runaway cases can be frustrating when juveniles do not want to return or parents do not want the juveniles to return.
Juveniles often run away again shortly after police return them home
Running away is a status offense; consequently, juveniles can be held in secure facilities only in limited situations. Unfortunately, the resources available to this population generally amount to a collection of loosely affiliated services and shelters of varied quality and quantity. As a result, police often have limited options for responding to The runaways and ensuring their safety.
Related Problems
Police encounter juveniles for many reasons related to their running away from home. Some of these issues are also covered in other guides in this series, all of which listed in the back of this guide. These related problems require their own analyses and responses:
child abduction by non-custodial parents
child abduction by strangers
child abandonment
child abuse and neglect
disorderly juveniles in public places
underage drinking
child sexual exploitation
prostitution
truancy
curfew violations
panhandling
shoplifting
drug dealing
problems relating to transient persons (e.g., sleeping, bathing, depositing human waste in public).
Availability
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Last update: 24 April 2006